Frozen Together
by Cke1st
Summary: What would have happened if Elsa had found the courage to say three tiny words near the beginning of the movie? Things might have turned out somewhat differently, especially with a few other plausible plot twists. This story is rated K-plus; the language is all K.
1. Chapter 1

**Frozen Together** Chapter 1

_A/N What would have happened if Elsa had found the courage to say three tiny words near the beginning of the movie? Things might have turned out somewhat differently, especially with a few other plausible plot twists. This story is rated K-plus; the language is all K._

_I wasn't interested in Frozen until I saw "Let It Go" on youtube. I finally broke down and went to see it, and I was completely captivated. Put me down firmly in Elsa's fan club. My favorite moment in the movie is during "Let It Go," when she takes her first step onto her ice stairway, realizes that it will support her, and joyously runs up the stairs as she creates them, free from her fears at last. I'm so happy for her at that moment!_

_I've been writing for this site for about a year, entirely for "How to Train Your Dragon." Aside from one crossover between "Dragon" and "My Little Pony," this is my first attempt at writing for any other fandom. I hope my story isn't too similar to someone else's fanfic. I love reviews; I can take criticism if it's not mean-spirited; and I often respond to questions or comments from reviewers. Just don't ask a question if you're reviewing from a guest account, because I can't answer you, and that frustrates me._

**o**

Anna paced the dim, quiet halls of her palatial home, desperately trying to think of some way to make things different. Making things better seemed impossible; "different" was all she dared hope for.

Her parents' funeral that morning had been a cold nightmare. As the sole member of the royal family who had attended, it was expected that she would act royal. A few tears had spilled over, in spite of her desire to meet everyone's expectations, but for the most part, she'd managed to look dignified and choke down her grief. "Choke" was a good choice of words; her throat was so tight, she could hardly swallow. Now she was alone at last, and free to cry as much as she wanted, but now the tears wouldn't flow.

Her only possible source of comfort was hiding on the other side of a locked door. Elsa hadn't been out of her room in years, as far as Anna knew, and by order of her parents, no one except them was allowed in. Gerda would knock on the door three times a day, slide a meal in when the door opened just wide enough to let the tray through, and then leave. She never saw Elsa. Her own parents seldom saw her. Anna never saw her or heard her, and that was the cruelest blow of all.

They used to be so close! Anna still had some dim memories of early childhood, when the two of them would play together. Some of the memories were certainly distorted by time – they _couldn't_ have actually played with snow _inside_ the palace, could they? But Elsa was her sister, her only sibling, and now, aside from some distant cousins who lived in other kingdoms, she was all the family Anna had left.

But something – some unknown, mysterious, horrible _something_ – kept her sister in her room, locked away from all human contact. Anna desperately needed human contact now. She needed it so badly that she was willing to risk one more rejection from the one who used to be her closest friend.

She hesitantly approached Elsa's bedroom door. They contrasted badly – the door was white, brightly painted in traditional blue and gold patterns, and she was still wearing black from the funeral. She knocked on the door three times, not hard, but hard enough to be heard. It was the first time in several years that she'd even tried to knock. She'd grown weary of being rejected and ignored, but now she had to try, just once more.

"Elsa?" she called hesitantly.

"Please – I know you're in there.  
"People are asking where you've been.  
"They say, 'Have courage,' and I'm trying to. I'm right out here for you. Just let me in.  
"We only have each other. It's just you and me. What are we gonna do?"

She slid to the floor, no longer able to stand. Childhood memories of her sister flooded her mind, adding to her torment at losing her parents, to the point where she nearly couldn't speak. She could barely get out the last few words she was thinking.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

Her voice broke off in a sob. It was her heart's cry to the sister she didn't even know any more, one last desperate attempt to reclaim something from the past that they might share.

She listened. There was no sound from within the room. Slowly, she slumped forward; even the effort of holding her head up was too much of a strain now.

And just as her head fell into her hands, she heard another grief-choked voice, seemingly from far, far away.

"Yes... I do."

Had she imagined it? She had dreamed of restoring her relationship with her sister for so long... was she just hearing what she wanted to hear?

"Elsa?" she tried to say, but her voice failed, and all she could do was whisper. She listened in the quiet hall for an answer, any answer at all.

All she heard was the quiet sound, muffled by the heavy oak door, of her sister weeping. After a few seconds, she thought she heard the words, "Father, Mother, please come back!" but she couldn't tell for sure. The voice on the other side of the door was as tight with grief as her own.

That sound was the first contact she'd had with Elsa in over ten years. It was also the trigger that opened the floodgates for her own tears, long held back, now free to flow at last.

On opposite sides of a locked door, Anna and Elsa wept and mourned together.

**o**

The next day, Anna tried knocking at Elsa's door. There was no response.

"Elsa... please talk to me? I really need to hear from you." She got no answer.

"Elsa, I know you haven't stepped out for the day! Answer me!" There was no reply.

"Fine!" she burst out. "Be stubborn! Stay in your prison cell if that's what you want! _I_ am going for a nice walk outside!" She stormed off in a huff. She never had any intentions of going for a walk, and it was just as well. She managed to hold off the tears until she was safely back in her own room.

She'd thought maybe they'd had a breakthrough yesterday. Maybe not. But still, something had changed, even if it was just for a few minutes. Maybe it might be worth trying again.

**o**

It was a week later. Anna was at the table in the informal dining room, sitting in her usual place, eating her breakfast. She ate by herself, as usual. For the eighth time in eight days, she thought of inviting the servants to join her, but she came to the same inescapable conclusion – it wouldn't be proper, no matter how faithful and kind they were. Her rank kept her apart from them, and it always would. She sat alone at the table that was meant to seat twelve, feeling even more small and isolated than usual.

Sometimes she hated being a princess.

She tried not to look at the places where her mother and father should be sitting. She had little appetite; she picked at her meal but didn't eat much. Gerda came in to check on her after half an hour. "Is there something else I could get for you, Princess Anna?" she asked, obviously concerned that the food wasn't to the princess' liking.

"No, Gerda. Thank you," she said quietly. As the servant turned to leave, Anna burst out, "Wait!" Gerda turned back, surprised.

"Gerda... when was the last time you saw Elsa?"

The older woman wrinkled her brow. She couldn't bring herself to mention that moment when Elsa had said goodbye to her parents at the back stairway. "I really can't say. It was such a long time ago... I'm really not sure."

"Did she look okay?" Anna asked her.

"Well, yes, of course. She was always such a pretty girl... I imagine she's grown into a lovely young lady by now, like you."

"But there was nothing wrong with her?" Anna persisted.

"No, nothing that I can remember," Gerda said, puzzled by this sudden turn of conversation. It was an unwritten rule in the palace that no one talked about Elsa. Any such conversations tended to turn awkward anyway, so it was easier to say nothing.

"When you bring her meals during the day, can you see anything unusual in her room?" Anna wasn't giving up.

"No, it looks rather plain inside. There isn't anything to see, really." Gerda suddenly looked suspicious. "You aren't planning to sneak in there, the way you always sneak around to find your Christmas presents before Christmas, are you? You know your parents' rule –"

"Yes, Gerda, I know the rule," Anna said quietly. "But it's just me and Elsa now. I can't go on pretending I have a sister who isn't there – I can't live that way anymore! I'm a princess of Arendelle, second in line to the throne, and maybe it's time _I_ made a new rule or two."

"I can't say I like the sound of that, Your Excellency," Gerda warned her. "If you're planning to start breaking your parents' rules, you'd better leave me out of it."

Anna looked at her speculatively. "Actually, Gerda, that's a very good idea."


	2. Chapter 2

**Frozen Together** Chapter 2

Knock, knock, knock. "Elsa?"

No answer.

"It's me. Anna. Your sister."

No answer.

"Do you remember me?"

No answer.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

She thought she heard footsteps inside.

"Anna, please stay away!"

"I can't, Elsa! I _can't_ stay away! You're all I've got left!"

No answer.

"Elsa, what's happened to you? Are you sick?"

After a long pause, she heard a quiet, "No."

"Are you hurt? Injured? Disfigured?"

"No."

"Do you turn into an ogre at night?"

"Anna, please go!"

"Elsa..." Anna felt like tearing her own hair out. "_Why_ can't you tell me what's _wrong?_"

"I just can't!" Anna heard the footsteps receding. She sighed deeply.

"All right, Elsa. But I'm making you a promise. As long as you stay in that room, you can't get away from me! I'll be back, and I'm going to keep coming back until... until... until you start treating me like a _sister_ again!" She stormed off, relieved that her older sister was at least talking (a little), but also very frustrated.

It was definitely time to try out her little plan.

Instead of waiting at the table for Gerda to bring her lunch, she waited at the dining-room doorway. When Gerda stepped out of the kitchen with Elsa's lunch tray, Anna leaned over and checked it out. She sniffed deeply.

"Ooh, Gerda, that ptarmigan looks delicious!"

"You wait your turn, Princess Anna," the servant chuckled. "This is your sister's lunch. There's plenty left for you."

Anna pouted. "I know, but I haven't eaten much lately, and that smells so good... can't I have this for my lunch, right now, and you can make another tray for Elsa afterward?"

"Now, now, you know the rule," Gerda mock-scolded her. "Your sister is older, and she'll be the queen some day, so she dines first. That's the way these things are done. You won't starve if you wait ten minutes, I promise."

"But she'll never know!" Anna burst out, then switched to her sad eyes. "Please?"

Gerda wavered, then yielded. "You're right – you haven't eaten much lately, and it does me good to see you enjoy my cooking. But this isn't going to happen again! Right?"

"Yes, Gerda." Princess or no princess, Anna was always respectful toward Gerda and Kai; her parents had taught her to be as polite to her servants as to visiting royalty. She took the tray, waited until Gerda was back in the kitchen, then scooted down the hall and up the great staircase.

As she approached Elsa's door, she had to stop for a moment. Her hands were shaking, which was making the lunch tray rattle. She took a few deep breaths to settle herself before she stepped up to the door. _This was Gerda's idea,_ she thought. _She told me to leave her out of it. So I'm leaving her out of this lunch delivery_.

Over the course of the past few days, she'd watched from down the hall as the servant delivered Elsa's lunch and took away the breakfast tray. She'd noticed how Gerda always knocked on the door the same way – four slow knocks, very easy to imitate. She would knock and set the lunch tray down by the door. A moment later, the lock would click, the door would ease open, and the servant would slide the tray in. A few seconds later, the empty tray from the previous meal would slide out. Gerda would take it, the door would close and lock again, and that would be that.

Today, it would be just a little bit different. Today, in exchange for her lunch, Elsa would give up some of her secrets.

Anna stepped up to her sister's door. She set the lunch tray down by the door and knocked four times, slowly. _Somebody is probably going to get mad at me for this,_ she thought. She heard footsteps. The lock clicked, the handle dipped, and the door quietly swung open. Anna slid the tray inside, but her attention was entirely on what she could see through that partially-open door.

The room looked smaller than her own. It was decorated in lavenders and magentas, with a colorful carpet. She could see one of the family's absurdly high-backed chairs, a stand with a vase and some flowers that were past their prime, and some paintings on the wall. She couldn't see a bed; it must be against the other wall, in the same location Elsa's bed had occupied when the girls shared a room. All in all, it seemed cozy, but hardly welcoming – it looked more like a guest room than anything else. There were no feminine touches. There was not a trace of evidence that a young lady spent her entire life in there.

A slender gloved hand reached around from behind the door and pulled the lunch tray in. After a few seconds, the gloved hand set down the breakfast tray and pushed it out. Anna took it, desperately trying to memorize everything she saw. She knew she wouldn't get another chance at this. As the door began to close, she noticed one other detail. Several parts of the lower wall were marked with odd stains. They looked like water damage. But the stains didn't run from the top of the wall downward; they seemed to have risen up from the floor. That didn't make any sense. So many clues, and so few answers!

The door clicked shut. The lock turned. From inside, Anna heard her sister say, "Thank you, Gerda."

She couldn't help it. She giggled. She heard a utensil drop onto the metal tray.

"Anna? Is that _you_ out there? Gerda, what have you _done?_"

"Gerda isn't here," Anna called. "It's just me."

"Anna, you... you don't know what you're doing! You don't know what you're dealing with!"

"Then tell me!" Anna demanded.

No answer.

"Fine," Anna huffed, drawing herself up to her full height, whether her sister could see her or not. "Elsa, this has just become a stubbornness contest! And I have _never_ lost one of those! Never!" She picked up the breakfast tray and beat a dignified retreat back to the kitchen.

Kai and Gerda were waiting for her, arms folded, glaring at the breakfast tray. They knew exactly what she'd done – the evidence was right there in her hands. She giggled nervously.

"That is _not_ what I call royal behavior, Your Excellency," Kai said icily. "I call it deception. Perhaps even... lying?"

"I... I just wanted to see what her room looks like," Anna stammered.

Gerda took the tray from her indignantly. "I hope you enjoyed _your lunch,_ Princess," she added. "But you said you were hungry, so I fixed you a second portion." She gestured into the dining room. Anna's place had been set with a glass of goat's milk and a small plate of dry crackers.

"You were right about one thing, Princess," Kai said as the servants turned toward the kitchen. "That ptarmigan _was_ delicious! We must have it again sometime soon." They closed the kitchen door behind them.

Anna glumly munched her crackers by herself. She couldn't bring herself to be angry at Kai or Gerda. After all, they were right – her actions had hardly been regal.

Was she angry at Elsa?

No, not even a little bit. She wasn't angry at anyone. She was just desperate to break down that colorful door, walk into that sterile room, and have a sister again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Frozen Together** Chapter 3

Knock, knock, knock. "Elsa? It's me. Anna."

No answer.

"I'm sorry I stole a look into your room. I promise I won't do it again."

No answer.

Anna crossed her arms. "I know you can hear me, and I'm not leaving until I hear you say something!"

"Fine," her sister's voice said at last. "Go away!"

What was she going to do about that?

"All right," she answered softly. "But I'll be back."

**o**

Knock, knock, knock. "I'm back."

No answer.

"Can't you at least talk to me?"

No answer.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

Anna thought she was going to get ignored again. But as she listened in the silence, she could hear soft breathing, just on the other side of the door. She listened extra-hard for any kind of clue she might hear.

"Anna, you don't know what I'd give..."

The voice was quiet, but Anna nearly jumped. It was the first non-hostile thing Elsa had said to her in thirteen years, aside from that whispered "Yes, I do" on the day their parents were buried. That had been in response to the same question about snowmen. Was there something special about snowmen, or snow in general?

"Elsa, I don't know what you're going through," Anna said, trying to keep control of her voice, "but I'd give _anything_ if you'd let me help you!"

"You can't help." Elsa's voice was flat and final, devoid of hope.

"At least I could keep you company."

"No, you can't do that either."

"Well, there _has_ to be _something!_" she burst out.

"Anna... the best thing you can do for me is stay away, so I don't have to worry about you."

"Elsa, I worry about _you,_ no matter where I am. You're my sister! I know you're hurting. Elsa... I'm hurting, too, because I miss you so much. Please!"

"Anna, there's nothing you can do for me. Mother and Father couldn't find a way to help, and you can't, either. Please go."

Anna could hear the pain in her sister's voice. She desperately wanted to hold Elsa's hand, or let her cry on her shoulder. She couldn't even imagine what her sister looked like, after all these years! On an impulse, she dropped to her hands and knees and tried to look under the door. Even if all she could see was her sister's shoes, at least that would be a start!

She couldn't see anything, except a narrow view of the far wall. She knew Elsa had to be standing right next to the door. Obviously, she knew what Anna was trying to do, and was hiding even the sight of her shoes from her.

Suddenly she heard a strange sound, like a faint rattling mixed with the tinkling of tiny bells. At the same time, she felt her hands and knees grow cold. She tried to stand up... and found that she couldn't. The hall carpet around the door had suddenly frozen solid, and she was stuck to it.

Her skirt came free fairly easily, although it left some fibers behind when it separated from the rug. Her hands... not so much. She couldn't work them free without pain, so she tried breathing on the carpet to warm it up. It might take her a while.

"Anna? Are you still there? Are you all right?"

"Yes, but, uhh... I'm stuck."

"Oh, no! Anna, I'm so sorry!" She heard someone throw herself on a bed, sobbing.

"Elsa, I'm okay! I'm just frozen to the floor somehow. I'm not hurt!"

No answer.

"Okay, we're back to that again." She breathed on the rug a few more times. "I think I'll be free in a few minutes. Then, will you talk to me some more?"

No answer.

It took her about ten minutes to thaw the rug enough that she could pull free without hurting herself. It was her lucky day; none of the servants came up to the hall and found her on her hands and knees in front of her sister's door. Elsa refused to make another sound. Anna finally retreated to the powder room, where she soaked her ice-cold hands in warm water for half an hour. She didn't seem to have suffered any lasting harm, so she used that half hour to think.

What could possibly have made that one section of the rug freeze, as quickly as that, in the middle of the palace? She didn't come up with any answers. But as she replayed the scene in her mind, one detail gave her a chill.

Elsa hadn't said, "Ow, I'm stuck!" or, "What just happened?" She'd said, "I'm so sorry!" That three-word sentence screamed three inescapable facts at Anna. One, the freezing was something Elsa had caused. Two, it didn't take her by surprise. Three, it didn't affect her, just Anna.

Those clues certainly didn't solve the mystery. They only deepened it. But they might be good conversation-starters the next time she knocked on her sister's door.


	4. Chapter 4

**Frozen Together** Chapter 4

Knock, knock, knock. "Elsa, it's me. We need to talk."

No answer.

"Elsa, that thing that happened yesterday, with the ice and the rug... was that something _you_ did somehow?"

"Anna, I'm begging you, let it go, and go away! _Please!_"

"It's not happening, Elsa. I don't know what your secret is, but it's coming out, little by little. I'm bound to figure it out eventually. Why don't you just tell me and get it over with?"

There was a long pause.

"You just won't take 'no' for an answer, will you, Anna?"

Anna hugged herself. She was about to win this stubbornness contest! She'd always known she would. But when she saw the unknown prize that she was about to win, would she like it?

The door lock clicked.

She waited for the door to open, but nothing happened. At last, with a strange mix of jubilation and fear, she reached for the handle and pushed it down. The door opened smoothly and quietly. She pushed it about halfway open; she figured her sister was behind it, and she didn't want to squash her against the wall if she flung the door open with her usual exuberance.

She stepped in. The rest of the room looked just like the small portion she'd seen when she brought Elsa her lunch – comfortable, but impersonal. The bed was neatly made. The doors of the armoire were closed, with no bits of clothing sticking out, unlike the way her own armoire usually looked. But she put all thoughts of furniture out of her mind when the door silently swung shut behind her.

Elsa was a little taller than her. She'd always been taller, because she was three years older, so Anna wasn't dismayed by that. Her blonde hair was tightly wrapped in braids around her head, very much like the way their mother used to wear it. Her clothing looked comfortable and well-made, but not extravagant or showy (or stylish). In spite of being confined to her room for most of her life, she'd kept herself in good shape. It was a trifle odd that she wore gloves indoors, but Anna wasn't about to mention that. She just stared at her for what seemed like several minutes.

"There," her sister finally said. "You've seen me. Are you satisfied?"

"Elsa... you're beautiful!" Anna burst out. It was no lie, except for her eyes. Her eyes were wide, blue, expressive, and... dead.

"You turned out pretty cute yourself," Elsa replied quietly, without making eye contact.

Anna chuckled self-consciously. "I used to hear that a lot from my imaginary friends, until they all stopped visiting," she said. She hoped Elsa might smile at that, but she got no response.

"Elsa, what happened to you? You used to be so vibrant, so... alive!" She took a step toward her.

Elsa shrank back in pure terror. "_No!_ Don't come any closer!" She held up a hand to ward her sister off, then pulled the hand back as though she'd almost touched something evil.

"Elsa, what –" Anna suddenly stopped. Snow had started falling.

Snow. Was falling. In Elsa's room.

Anna looked at some of the flakes as they landed on her sleeve. They looked like real snowflakes, and they melted like snowflakes do. She caught one in the palm of her hand; it was cold like a snowflake. They weren't something that was falling off the ceiling. They were just... appearing in mid-air, and falling all around them. They began circling the room as a light breeze began to blow.

Elsa had hidden her face in her hands, and was sobbing, "Please, no! Please, _no!_"

Anna took several steps back. She didn't want to upset her sister, and she was desperately confused. What was she supposed to do in a situation like this? Her tutors had never covered the appropriate royal protocol for what to do when it started snowing in someone's room. Or maybe they had, and she just hadn't been paying attention, like with so many other lessons she was supposed to learn.

"Anna, you need to go! Please! Hurry!" Elsa cried. Anna nodded reluctantly and reached for the door handle, which was covered in frost. She pushed on the handle nervously, not wanting her hand to get stuck to it. It didn't move. The latch was frozen solid.

"I can't get out!" she exclaimed. The snow was falling harder, the wind was picking up, and it was getting noticeably colder. "Elsa, what's happening?" she begged.

"Not again! Please! I'm scared!" Her sister was cowering in the corner; her eyes were wild with abject terror.

"Think happy thoughts, Elsa!" Anna cried. It was all she could think of.

"I don't know any!" her sister shouted back over the roar of the wind. Anna had to squint to keep the whirling snowflakes from hurting her eyes.

Snowflakes...

"Do you want to build a snowman?" she called.

"What?!" Elsa exclaimed.

"A snowman! Like the ones we used to make when we were little!" Anna pointed to the floor near the window, where the snow was quickly covering the floor. "We can build it right here!" Why not do something crazy – the situation itself was crazy!

She hoped Elsa might start rolling a snowball for the snowman's body. What she got was something else entirely. Her sister took off her glove, stretched out her left hand, and twirled her pointer finger. A spray of snowflakes shot out of her hand, coalesced in the air near the window, and formed a tiny whirlpool of snow. The whirlpool thickened into a ball, then two balls, then three. As Elsa focused on what she was doing, the snow in the rest of the room began to slacken. The wind subsided slightly.

Anna stared, open-mouthed, at the scene unfolding in front of her. Elsa gestured, and the three balls suddenly rolled on top of each other, forming a rudimentary snowman. The wildness had left her eyes. She was completely intent on what she was creating.

"Don't forget the mouth!" Anna burst out. "With the big, goofy front teeth!" Elsa wiggled her finger, and the top ball distended into a face that Anna hadn't seen in years. Memories flooded back. She _recognized_ that snowman! Elsa had recreated their childhood memory down to the smallest detail, just by waving her hand. The snowstorm in the room continued to abate until it was almost gone.

Anna's ears were recovering from the roaring of the wind in the enclosed room. She stepped over to the snowman. It seemed tiny. No doubt it was the same size as the snowmen they'd played with as small children, but she was a lot taller now.

Elsa hesitantly took a step toward her, keeping the snowman between herself and her sister. They made eye contact for a moment before Elsa looked down again.

"What was his name?" Anna asked quietly.

"Whose name?" Elsa replied.

"The snowman's name," Anna said. "We always called him the same name every time we made him."

Elsa stretched her mind back to happier days, almost forgotten. "Olaf," she said hesitantly; then, more firmly, "We always called him Olaf." She bent down so her head was almost at eye level with it and said, "Hi, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!"

Anna giggled at the memory. When Elsa straightened, Anna looked her sister in the eye and took a step toward her. Elsa turned as if to flee back to the corner.

"Elsa, please..." she said, and stopped. Her sister froze, then relaxed, just a little. Anna reached out and touched her on the arm, as gently as she could.

"I like warm hugs, too," she said softly.

Elsa hesitated. Then they flung their arms around each other and had a long, long, wonderful cry together. The snow was still falling in the room, but it was just a light dusting now. After a few seconds, Anna didn't even notice it.

It seemed like hours before they finally pulled away from each other. Elsa's hair was disheveled from the strange indoor storm, and the small amount of makeup she wore was badly smeared from crying. Anna thought she'd never seen such a beautiful sight in her life. "So, what happens next?" she asked quietly.

They heard the distant striking of the grandfather clock in the library downstairs. "You should go, before Gerda gets here with my lunch," Elsa said, a bit nervously.

"Can we try this again tomorrow?" Anna asked hopefully.

"I... I don't know," Elsa replied. "Please, you need to go."

"Elsa, you can't just –"

"Anna, please! Maybe tomorrow, but not today." She stepped away and made as if to hide in the corner again.

"All right," Anna said softly. "Maybe tomorrow." She reluctantly stepped outside. The door closed. She heard the lock click. She was alone in the hall again, as though nothing had even happened between them.

She pressed her cheek against the door. "Thank you for the snowman, Elsa." There was no answer.


	5. Chapter 5

**Frozen Together** Chapter 5

Knock, knock, na-knock knock. "Do you want to build a snowman?" That had become their special code phrase.

After a few seconds, Elsa answered, "All right." The lock clicked and the door swung halfway open. Anna stepped inside eagerly.

They'd been meeting in her room, off and on, for more than a week now. There were some days when Anna knocked, and Elsa would answer, "Not today. Please." One morning, she didn't even answer at all. When Anna would ask why later, she always got the same answer – "I was scared."

Anna didn't push the issue. Maybe she'd never be the Queen of Arendelle, but she was already the Queen of Determination, and she knew she'd get her answers eventually. For now, it was enough just to spend time with her sister, and get to know her all over again.

They would sit in those absurd high-backed chairs, about six feet away from each other (that was Elsa's comfort zone), and talk about whatever came to their minds. Elsa had almost forgotten the girlish art of chatting about nothing for hours on end, so Anna had to do most of the talking. That was no hardship for Anna, who had had no one to talk to for years, and had resorted to talking to the pictures on the walls. She talked about her own childhood, the many strange and wonderful people who had visited the palace over the years (including a nice-looking young prince whom their parents had considered as a possible husband for Anna, until they learned he was just a penniless pretender whose hobby was impersonating royalty), and the state of the kingdom that Elsa would eventually become the queen of. Her older sister would sit listening to it all, nodding here and there, almost smiling at the amusing parts, but never completely relaxed.

At some point during each visit, the snow would start falling. Anna quickly learned that the weather indoors would take a turn for the worse whenever Elsa felt stressed or fearful. She learned what kinds of things _not_ to say, especially any mention of Elsa's ability. She also learned that she could make things better just by distracting her sister and getting her to think pleasant thoughts. Once, all she had to do was cross her eyes and stick out her tongue; on other days, it was more difficult. She'd given up on thinking of a royal protocol for this kind of thing; she just improvised.

As soon as her sister's stress had faded and the weather in her room had returned to normal, Elsa's reaction was predictable. She would be badly shaken by the experience, she would be slightly embarrassed, and she would quietly say, "Thank you, Anna."

Anna was dying to know more about the connection between her sister and frozen water, but she'd learned that this was a forbidden subject. As she stepped into Elsa's room today, she resolved to hold her curiosity in check for a little while longer. Stressing out her sister wasn't fun. She took her seat and waited for Elsa to say something.

"So... what are we going to do today?" Elsa finally asked.

"Do?" Anna wasn't ready for that question. So far, all they'd done was talk. "Uhh... could we play a game?" she blurted out.

"I don't know many games," Elsa said, a bit sadly. Anna was even sadder – Elsa used to be great at making up games for the two of them to play. She tried to think of a game that two young ladies with pretensions to adulthood might play together.

"Chess?" she asked hesitantly.

"I'm not very good," Elsa said.

"Me neither," Anna nodded. Elsa got out of her chair and sat down on the floor. Anna did likewise, being careful not to get too close. Her sister gestured with outspread fingers, and an eight-by-eight grid of squares drew itself in shiny ice crystals on the rug. She wiggled her fingers, and thirty-two beautiful little chess pieces rose out of the carpet, sixteen in pure white ice, sixteen in blue ice. Anna tried not to gasp in delight. Elsa got upset if her sister paid too much attention to her special talent.

It was no exaggeration that neither girl was very good at the game. In fact, both of them had forgotten most of the rules, so they made them up as they went along. Those rules quickly crossed the line into the absurd, and went downhill from there, until both girls collapsed into a giggling fit and forgot about the game. The chess pieces vanished in little puffs of ice crystals that sparkled as they floated to the floor.

"I'm glad you came today, Anna," Elsa finally said.

"So am I," Anna replied. "You don't know how many times I knocked on your door, and wished with all my heart that you'd let me in, or at least talk to me."

"You don't know how many times I wanted to let you in," Elsa said quietly.

Anna thought she might scream if she didn't ask, "Then why didn't you?" But she bit her tongue, literally. It hurt enough to keep her from asking the question. She knew it would only make things worse. Brute-force stubbornness wouldn't help her solve this mystery. She'd change the subject instead.

"Did you ever want to get a makeover?"

"A what?" Elsa looked perplexed.

"A makeover! You know – new hairstyle, new makeup, new clothes, new shoes... _lots_ of new shoes!" She tried to hold back a giggle, and failed.

Elsa shook her head sadly. "I can't. Queens can't do that kind of thing. People like their royalty to be unchanging and predictable." She folded her hands, the way their father used to do when he shifted into teaching mode, and dropped her voice as low as it would go. "Stability is the thing, Elsa. Always remember that." Then she resumed her normal voice. "I'll admit, the 'new shoes' part sounds fun, even though I don't need shoes very much."

"But why not?" Anna burst out. "I mean, you could just walk up and down the hall with me a couple of times, or visit some of the other rooms in the palace... maybe even take a quick walk outside – wouldn't that be..."

Snow began falling. _Oh, no, not again,_ Anna thought. The wind picked up quickly this time; Elsa was already close to complete and utter panic.

"Elsa!" she shouted. "Think about... think about flowers!"

"Flowers?"

"Flowers! I know you've seen them out your window all these years – the reinroses, the vivendels, the bergfrues, even the bakkekløvers! Think how beautiful they are! Think of the colors!" The snowfall was beginning to slacken.

"Think about the way the vivendels smell, Elsa! I know you can open your windows in the summer – you _must_ have smelled them growing in the palace gardens! Their fragrance takes over _everything_." Elsa was beginning to relax again. Anna took a hesitant step toward her.

"Think how pretty you'd look with a kusymre in your hair," she said softly. "I can't wear kusymres; they don't look good on me." She rested a hand on Elsa's shoulder. "I could pick you a kusymre if you wanted me to."

Elsa didn't answer; she just flung her arms around her sister and clung to her, shaking. Anna returned her embrace, and slowly rocked her back and forth until the shaking stopped, and the snowfall along with it.

"Thank you, Anna," Elsa whispered.

"That's what sisters do for each other," she whispered back.

Elsa slid away to arm's length, but held onto her sister's hands. "Mother and Father never did learn how to help me control it," she said, very quietly. "You just seem to know how to settle me down."

"I also seem to know how to set you off," Anna replied ruefully.

"That doesn't take much," Elsa said sadly. "Oh, Anna... I've been stuck in this room so long, I don't know if I could ever come out again!"

"You've _never_ been out of here since...?"

"Only to take my bath in the powder room, after everyone else has gone to bed," Elsa said with some embarrassment. "And sometimes Father and Mother would meet me in their room, or in the back stairway if they were going away..." She broke off; that brief meeting in the back stairway was her last memory of her parents. "But just walking around in daylight? I haven't done that since... I don't know when."

"Elsa, you know you're going to have to come out some day. Your coronation is only a few years away!" She felt Elsa tighten up, but went on. "Are you going to wave some kind of magic staff, and suddenly you'll walk out that door, and everything will be different, and nothing will go wrong? You need to work up to it!" When Elsa didn't respond, she added, "I'll go with you."

"Go with me?" Elsa didn't seem to believe it. "Anna, why are you so endlessly patient and nice to me?"

"Because I'm your sister." To Anna, that said it all, but she sensed that Elsa needed to hear more. "I love you, and I want you to be happy. I know you're not happy, stuck inside this room. So if there's anything I can do to help you get out of here, I'll gladly do it."

"But... what if someone sees..."

Understanding dawned. "You stay in your room because you're afraid someone will see the snow?"

"Oh, Anna, it's more than that! Much more! Don't ask me to explain it!" She was folding her arms and lowering her head, a sure sign that she was fighting whatever-it-was inside her, and the snow was about to start falling again. Anna quickly reached for Elsa's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze.

"I won't ask!" she exclaimed. Elsa slowly took a breath and relaxed. Anna let out the breath she'd been holding. She'd nipped that one in the bud.

"But, Elsa, can't we just go for a quick walk up and down the hall, just once? Gerda's out shopping, and Kai has the day off, so no one will see you."

"Is it that important to you?" Elsa wondered.

"You need to start somewhere," Anna replied. "It's time."

" 'Cause for the first time in forever, no more hiding – you can stand!  
"We can tame your power together, if you let me hold your hand.  
"You can be the queen we've dreamed of! Live in hope and not in fear,  
"Because from now until forever, I will stay right here."

Elsa shook her head. "Anna, you don't know what you're saying! You can't stay beside me your whole life! What do you think is going to happen when you meet a nice prince and get married? You'll have to leave Arendelle and live in _his_ kingdom with _him!_"

"Nope," Anna replied cheerfully, with a snap of her fingers. "_He'll_ have to come and live _here,_ because here is where I'm staying. Right beside you."

Elsa smiled, just a little. "I thought _I_ was supposed to be the big sister!"

"You'll get your chance, I'm sure," Anna replied lightly. "Now, Your Highness, what would you say to a quick morning constitutional?"

Elsa reached for the door handle, then pulled her hand away. "I can't do it."

"That's okay. I can." Anna eased the door open, stuck her head out, and looked both ways. "The coast is clear. No one is in sight, and I don't hear anyone downstairs." When Elsa hesitated, Anna took her hand. Their fingers intertwined. "Just one step at a time, Elsa."

They stepped out into the hall. Elsa was almost rigid. Anna couldn't tell if she was practicing walking like a queen, or if she was just scared. They walked hand-in-hand to the end of the hall and turned back. That was when Elsa saw that she'd left white frosted footprints in the rug. She gasped.

Anna gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry about that! The carpet can take it. We used to run up and down this hall in wet, snowy boots all the time when we were little. Remember?"

"But... I hate to make a mess for Kai to clean up!" Elsa protested. "It's not fair to him."

"I don't think he'll complain about a little mess like this, not after some of the _big_ messes we made him clean up!" She had to smile at the memories. "I can remember one time when we were playing with snow, down in the ballroom, and –"

Evidently, that was the _wrong_ thing to say.

Elsa went pale; her eyes went wide. She let go of Anna's hand and dashed back to her room. She left a spray of snowflakes behind her, and more icy footprints in the rug that spread until each print was three feet across. The door slammed, and the lock clicked. Anna knew it would be no use trying to talk to her sister through the door now.

She just stood alone at the end of the hall, one tear rolling down her cheek. "What _happened_ to you, Elsa? What are you so _afraid_ of?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Frozen Together** Chapter 6

The next day, when Anna knocked, Elsa didn't answer. The following day, her only response was, "Please stay away!" It wasn't until two days later that Elsa was finally willing to "build a snowman" again.

They sat in their chairs and stared at each other. Elsa was wearing her gloves again, which Anna took as a bad sign. There was moisture on the wall, which probably meant that part of the wall had been covered in ice a few minutes ago. Anna had just about reached her breaking point, not just with curiosity, but with frustration that her relationship with her sister was going nowhere. Maybe it was time to venture out onto the ice and see if it was strong enough to support her.

"Are we just going to sit here?" Elsa finally asked. "You could do that anywhere."

"I'd rather do it here," Anna said quietly, and that was the truth.

"Just staring at each other isn't the best way I can think of to spend a morning," Elsa replied.

"The only one who can change that is you," Anna said, trying not to sound like she was looking for a confrontation.

"And what am _I_ supposed to do?" Elsa exclaimed, throwing her gloved hands into the air. A light snow began to fall.

"What are you supposed to do?" Anna burst out. "You could _talk_ to me! Talk to me about _this!_" She waved her hand at the snow, which began falling thicker. "Talk to me about the snowman you made by waving your fingers at it!" She leaned toward Elsa. "Talk to me about what frightens you so much! Please, I'm begging you, just _talk_ to me!"

Elsa retreated toward the corner. The wind was rising; the room suddenly felt ten degrees colder. "No!" she screamed desperately. "I can't! Please get out while you can!"

"I'm not leaving this time!" Anna shouted back, rising from her chair. "You've _got_ to tell me what this is all about!"

Elsa began to cry. "I can't! I can't face that memory again!" She knelt and cowered in the corner.

Anna knelt down about five feet away. "Elsa, I think you face that memory, whatever it is, every _day!_ Hiding from it isn't working!" She got no response. "Elsa, I love you! I want to help!"

"You can't help!" her sister sobbed. "No one can help! Just leave me alone! I don't want to hurt you!"

"I know that! So don't hurt me!" Anna exclaimed. "If you tell me the truth, what's the worst thing that could happen?"

Elsa didn't answer. She was wide-eyed and almost out of control. Ice was creeping around the walls from where she was leaning against them. The room had grown so cold, Anna was starting to shiver. Snow was coming down so heavily that she couldn't see the windows. If she tried to smooth things over, the storm would cease, but the real problem would remain unknown and unsolved.

"Elsa, if you can't _tell_ me, then can you _show_ me somehow?"

They were both shaking – Anna from the cold, Elsa from fear. The older girl took off a glove with some difficulty, and with a trembling hand, she pointed into the middle of the room. The snow whirled and flew together there, forming a large lump that quickly reshaped itself into a likeness of... something. Anna stared at the lump as it became a sculpture of some kind. It grew more detailed with each passing second, as clusters of snowflakes attached themselves to it or flew away from it. As Elsa focused on it, the wind died and the room temperature rose slightly, but the snow was still cascading down all around them.

It seemed to be a life-sized snow statue of two young children together. Anna stared at it. As the last few details emerged, she spun to stare at Elsa.

"That's _us!_ That's us when we were little!" she burst out. "I'm sleeping, and you're cradling my head... what does this mean?"

Elsa shook her head. "No," she moaned. "That was the day I almost _killed_ you!" She fell face-down on the snowy carpet, crying uncontrollably. The wind began blowing again.

Anna clamped down on the urge to ask fifty thousand questions. Her sister was almost out of control. Putting more pressure on her couldn't accomplish anything, and Elsa was too far gone to think about flowers. Anna's next urge was to give her sister a hug and tell her it was okay, but getting too close when she was like this always made things much worse. This was a storm she would probably have to ride out. But she still had one option left that might do some good.

"Do you want to build a snowman? I think that's all that we can do.  
"In all those years when we were on our own, I felt so all alone! I only wanted you!  
"And now we're getting closer, and yet we're not. You won't treat me like we're kin.  
"Do you want to build a snowman? Let me help you build a snowman.  
"Let me in."

The wind slowly died. It was still cold in the room, and the snow was coming down as thick as Anna had ever seen it outdoors. Elsa slowly rose and walked hesitantly over to stand next to the statue, then sat down heavily next to it. A tear rolled down her cheek. It froze before it hit the floor.

"I was never supposed to talk about this," she said slowly, tightly. "But Father and Mother are gone, and you already know some of the truth. There's no reason to hold it back from you anymore.

"I was born with power over snow and ice," she began. "No one knew how or why. I think Mother and Father found out about it when I froze the bottle they were trying to feed me. When I was old enough to understand, they told me to never do anything with my ability outside the palace grounds. But we could have all kinds of fun with it together on the inside. You loved it when I used my powers for you!

"I'd do little tricks for you with ice crystals." She opened her clenched fist, and a two-inch snowflake appeared in her palm. Anna couldn't help smiling in delight. The big flake spun for a few seconds like a ballerina, then fractured into six smaller flakes that also spun and danced in her hand before they broke into thirty-six even smaller ones. Those flakes, which were still much bigger than any normal snowflake, twirled in complex patterns, then burst into tiny ice crystals that were quickly lost in the falling snow.

"I'd make Olaf, and we'd make him talk. We'd skate all over the floor. We'd play all kinds of games! One that you really liked was 'tickle bumps.' You'd jump, and I'd make a snow pile appear so you wouldn't hit the floor. You'd bounce from pile to pile... you had so much fun... I did, too..." She broke off. Anna waited.

Elsa stared at the floor. "One morning, when I was seven and you were four, we were playing in the ballroom... you started jumping from the snow piles, and... you were going so fast, I couldn't keep up with you... I slipped on the ice... you jumped again... I knew it was going to be bad..."

"You let me fall?" Anna asked quietly.

"**I SHOT YOU IN THE HEAD!**" Elsa screamed. Her sister started back from the sheer intensity of her outburst. Elsa hid her face in her hands and rocked from side to side, sobbing hysterically. "Oh, Anna! Oh, Anna! What I wouldn't _give_ to take back that moment! What I wouldn't _give_ to be able to think about you, and not see THIS!" She waved her hand at the snow statue without looking; it vanished in a thick puff of snowflakes.

"I don't remember any of this," Anna said hesitantly.

"You were unconscious," Elsa finally managed to say. "You were so cold! You got that white streak in your hair – that's where that came from. I couldn't wake you up. I'd never been so scared in my life! Father and Mother took us to the trolls, and they –"

"Trolls?!" Anna couldn't help exclaiming.

"They healed you, and they took all the memories of my ability out of your mind. They said it was for the best. They said I had to learn to control my power... but I never did. It just got stronger." She closed her eyes and shook her head miserably. "I still can't control it." Her eyelashes glistened with tears.

Anna scooted a foot closer to her. "And you spent all those years isolated, because you felt guilty?"

"_I didn't want to let it happen again!_" Elsa burst out. "Don't you understand, Anna? I did it for _you!_ I did it to _protect_ you! I did it to keep you safe... from me!"

"But... it was an accident!" Anna stammered. "I know you didn't mean it. I forgive you!"

Elsa stared at her. The snowfall slackened somewhat. "Anna... that helps. Thank you. But... I still can't control the cold that comes out of me. It would take just one unguarded moment... Father knew where to find the trolls, but I don't. If I hurt you again, no one could help you."

"But... you don't want to hurt me!" Anna questioned her. "Right?"

"Anna, you still don't understand!" Rows of icicles were rising out of the carpet, forming a pointy wall a foot high, surrounding her as she sat on the floor. "It has _nothing_ to do with what I want. I really can't control it! I could hurt you... I could _kill_ you... without even meaning to!"

"And that's what you're so afraid of," Anna whispered. Elsa nodded slowly, then hugged her knees and sobbed hopelessly.

Anna tried to figure this out. She truly had no memory of what Elsa was talking about, but it was obviously very real to her. She let her right-hand braid trail through her hand, and gazed at the white streak that had been there for as long as she could remember.

"Elsa," she said softly, "nothing you've ever done, and nothing you ever _could _do, is going to change the fact that you're my sister, or the fact that I love you. That moment in the past must have been awful, but it's in the past now. This is today. There aren't any tickle bumps here, and there aren't any trolls. It's just you and me.

"Today, you don't have to catch me when I'm falling. You don't have to do anything with your ability at all. All I want us to do is walk up and down the halls a few times. You don't have to do anything dramatic or powerful; just put one foot in front of the other." She stood and gently added, "Now step over those icicles, and come take my hand. Please."

Elsa wiped her tears with her gloved hand and shook her head. "Anna, you're too trusting! You _need_ to be afraid of me! It's for your own good!"

"No, I _won't_ be afraid of you!" Anna replied, firmly but as gently as she could. "It's for _your_ own good! You're my sister, not a monster! I won't run from you!"

Elsa stared at her. How could Anna have so little common sense, not to know danger when she was staring right at it? Her sister had dressed warmly, like she usually did for these visits. The snow was piling up on her shoulders and her bonnet, but she didn't seem to notice it, or think it strange that she was becoming snow-covered indoors. How could she make Anna see reason?

Anna stared back. There wasn't a trace of menace or threat about her sister, or even in the snow that was building up around them. This story she told... it sounded unbelievable. But Elsa's power was real, and her fear was real. She brushed the snow off her shoulders and her head – there was a lot of it, she realized – and beckoned with her hand.

"Come on, Elsa. It's just a short walk."

Elsa looked into Anna's eyes. So trusting... so naïve...

...so loving...

She rose, stepped over the icicle wall, and took her sister's hand.

As they stepped though the open door, Elsa gestured behind her back. The icicles shrank into the floor and disappeared.


	7. Chapter 7

**Frozen Together** Chapter 7

Days became weeks, and the weeks ran into months. Anna and Elsa slowly, hesitantly began to rebuild their relationship. Not only was it different from the way it used to be; it was probably different from any other sisterly relationship anywhere.

Elsa's fear of hurting her sister was still a prime factor in her every thought and action. There were still days when she would refuse to answer Anna's knock at her door. They almost never spent a morning together without at least one indoor snowstorm, and the cause was always the same – Elsa's fear that she might do something to hurt Anna.

Yet, at the same time, Anna also became Elsa's lifeline for dealing with those very fears. All her life, Elsa had had to deal with her terrors on her own. Their parents had never figured out a way to help. Anna's uncanny ability to help her focus herself away from those fears and settle herself down was something she had never known before. It was a wonderful feeling; she began to rely on it. While the snowstorms still came with distressing regularity, they tended to be less wild and threatening than before, as Elsa learned to relax and enjoy her younger sister's company.

Neither of them realized how true this was, until the time Anna caught a cold and had to spend two days in bed. When she finally felt healthy enough to visit Elsa again, she had barely knocked and called, "Do you w–" before her sister's voice screamed, "_Yes!_ Come in! _Please!_"

Anna had to force the door open. The floor in Elsa's room was over a foot deep in snow; ice covered the walls and windows; icicles hung from the ceiling; the wind was blowing at gale force; and Elsa herself looked like she hadn't brushed her hair or washed her face in days. She flung herself at Anna and clung to her desperately.

"Elsa, are you –"

"Don't talk," her older sister begged. So Anna just held her for long minutes, until the wind began to die down and the whirling snowflakes stopped stinging her eyes.

"Where were you?" Elsa whispered in her ear.

"I was sick with a cold," she answered. "I had to stay in bed. I didn't want you to catch it, too."

"Next time... please, let me catch it," her sister said quietly. "Don't leave me alone that long again."

"You'd rather get sick than be without me?"

"I'll chance it," Elsa said softly. "Besides, colds never bothered me anyway."

When Elsa finally let her go, Anna kicked at a snowdrift. "What did Gerda say when she saw all this?"

"She didn't," Elsa said with a trace of embarrassment. "I didn't dare open the door for her."

"You've gone two days without _eating?!_" Anna was shocked. "Why didn't you just... make the snow go away?"

"I can't," Elsa said, always reluctant to talk about her ability. "I can move small amounts of snow around, but once there's a lot of it... I don't know how to do it."

Their visit was a bit shorter than usual, because Elsa was exhausted from the strain of fighting her fears all by herself for days. Anna marked time until lunch, then made her way down to the dining room, and got there just as Gerda was getting Elsa's lunch tray organized.

"_Morr_ with lingonberry sauce and potatoes! Gerda, that looks delicious!"

"I suppose you'd like to have this tray for yourself?" Gerda gave her a knowing look, and Anna decided to try a totally different approach this time.

"No, Gerda... I'd like to take it up to Elsa's room. For her. I know she's hungry."

"A fine idea, Princess," Kai said from the doorway, "but I have a better one. Gerda can make _two_ trays, and each of you can carry one up to Elsa's room, so you can have lunch with your sister."

Anna was dumbstruck, which was something that almost _never_ happened. The servants chuckled at her. "Princess Anna, you still have many lessons to learn about being royal," Gerda said lightly. "One of those lessons is that _nothing_ happens in the palace without the servants finding out about it."

"We're both thrilled that you're spending time together again," Kai added. "Maybe this long winter is finally coming to an end."

"How much... how much do you know about Elsa?" Anna finally stammered.

"We remember her from when she was a baby," Kai said slowly. "We know all about... the special things she did. Your parents didn't say much about her after they closed the gates, but we know she's been very lonely."

"You don't have to say anything about that, if you don't want to," Gerda added. "We won't pry. It's not our place." She loaded a second tray with Anna's lunch, and the two of them carried the trays upstairs. Gerda knocked four times, the door opened partially, and the servant slid her tray in. If the sight of a foot of snow on the floor surprised her, she said nothing.

Before Elsa could shut the door, Anna gave her special knock and slid her own tray into the room right behind the other one. "Anna?" her sister called, puzzled. "You're back already?"

"I've been away for two days. We need to make up for lost time." Anna stepped inside and closed the door. Elsa took both her hands, looking very grateful. Anna couldn't return the expression; her fingers suddenly felt frozen. She glanced down, and saw that her hands had been encased in a thin layer of ice.

Snow appeared from nowhere; Elsa let go and retreated into the corner with a cry, looking stunned. "It's okay! It's okay!" Anna exclaimed. "See?" She flexed her fingers, and the ice crackled and fell away. A few pieces clung to her, but quickly melted against her skin. "No problem. Nothing to be afraid of."

"Anna, what's going to happen when it isn't just a _little_ thing I do to you?" Elsa asked from the corner of the room.

"What happened before was an accident," Anna said earnestly. "You know and I know that it will never happen again. I'm not going to live in fear." The falling snow began to dissipate. "I wish I could help _you_ to not live in fear, too." When Elsa didn't answer, she added, "Anyway, you can't tell me you're not hungry, because I _know_ you haven't had a meal in two days. Let's eat!"

Elsa nodded after a moment. They cleared the snow off a patch of floor, and sat and ate their lunch together. They didn't say much. That was okay; every princess knows it's rude to talk with your mouth full.

**o**

Anna kept encouraging her sister to get out of her room and walk the halls with her. Sometimes Elsa was willing, and sometimes she wasn't. She slowly grew braver as time passed; she still had fear attacks, with attendant snowfall, but she spent more and more time walking before she felt like she had to retreat to the safety of her familiar four walls, for fear of hurting someone.

One morning, as they were quietly walking back and forth, they passed the main stairway as Gerda was polishing the banister, one floor below. The servant's eyes went wide as she saw Elsa; her polishing rag fell to the floor, forgotten. Elsa, for her part, kept her expression neutral, but Anna knew an indoor blizzard was just seconds away.

She quickly took the place Elsa found most comforting – just behind her, with one hand on Elsa's right shoulder and the other on her arm. Close, but not confining. "Happy thoughts," she whispered. "Think happy thoughts. Think of white, fluffy clouds."

"Princess Elsa," Gerda called up the stairs. "It's... good to see you again." She had to have noticed the light dusting of snow upstairs, but she said nothing about it.

"It's good to see you, too, Gerda," Elsa replied tightly.

"Is there something I can do for you?" the servant said. "Perhaps there's something special you'd like for lunch?"

"No, thank you, Gerda, but... I think I will take lunch in the dining room with my sister today."

"Y-y-yes, of course." No one had seen _that_ one coming! Gerda bustled off to change her lunchtime arrangements.

"Elsa, are you sure you're ready for that?" Anna wondered.

"I'm sure that I'm ready to try," Elsa replied. She tapped Anna's hand, which was still on her shoulder. "Thank you for being there for me."

"I made you a promise," Anna replied.

As first in line for the throne, Elsa sat at the head of the table, with Anna in the first seat on the right side. When Gerda set their plates down, Anna gasped. "Stekt fisk! My favorite!"

"You think _everything_ is your favorite!" Gerda chuckled. "If I ate like you did, I'd be as big as a whale. Enjoy your meal, Your Excellencies."

Anna tore into her meal with gusto; Elsa went a lot more slowly. When Anna paused to watch her sister, she noticed that Elsa's fork was covered in frost crystals, and as soon as she picked up a bite of fish, the fish became frost-covered as well.

"This always happens," Elsa said ruefully. "I knew I should have brought my gloves."

Anna didn't answer. She just cut up another piece of fish, picked it up with her fork... and held it out toward Elsa.

"Oh, please don't do that!" Elsa said, embarrassed. "I'd feel so silly!"

"Please take it," Anna urged her. After a few seconds, she did.

"Mmm! You're right – this _is_ good!"

Anna shared several bites of her lunch with her sister, who always protested, and always took them anyway. At one point, Elsa returned the favor and offered Anna a frozen bite of her own lunch. Anna accepted it, more out of curiosity than anything else.

"Crunchy," she decided.

"Usually, 'crunchy' is bad with fish," Elsa noted.

"I suppose I could get used to it," Anna said.

Elsa rested her hand on the back of Anna's hand. "Warm is much better," she smiled.


	8. Chapter 8

**Frozen Together** Chapter 8

As the months stretched into years, Elsa slowly gained a small measure of mastery over her fears. It wasn't much, but any progress at all was an improvement that both she and her sister desperately needed.

The gates of the palace remained closed. But within that palace, Elsa could be found almost anywhere, at any time of the day. She almost always ate with Anna in the informal dining room; there were no more trays brought up to her room at mealtimes. During the day, she could usually be found gazing apprehensively out the partially-curtained windows at the kingdom that would soon be hers, or curled up on a couch in the library with a book. She also spent a few hours a day on her long-neglected education, as provided by a select handful of tutors who had been sworn to secrecy and cautioned not to get alarmed if the weather indoors took a sudden turn for the worse.

Anna had to attend the first few of those tutoring sessions, to reassure Elsa in case her fear of hurting someone manifested itself. Elsa hadn't spent time with strangers since she was seven years old; no one knew how she'd react to an unfamiliar person's unfamiliar ways. Her first tutor, an elderly lady who taught history, was taken aback by the sight of her new pupil accompanied by a younger sister dressed for extreme winter weather. Anna's precautionary clothing turned out to be unnecessary that time. Still, it was fortunate that the tutor was slightly nearsighted; she didn't notice how the floor around Elsa's chair, and the legs of the chair, were eventually coated in half an inch of ice.

Soon, the visits from the tutors became commonplace. Elsa grew a little bit confident in her ability to keep herself under control, to the point where she was willing to learn royal etiquette and the principles of rulership from a visiting duchess. That was a critical test, because no noblewoman would ever swear an oath to keep secrets. But Elsa passed the test; the duchess suspected nothing.

Anna decided that her sister needed new horizons to conquer. Her next challenge would be a visit from a seamstress, to be measured for some nice new clothing.

"Why go to all that effort when no one will ever see me wearing it?" Elsa asked sadly. "I mean, I like new clothes as much as any girl, but what's the point?"

"Your coronation is less than a year away," Anna reminded her. "You'll have to have all _kinds _of new outfits for the ceremony, the balls, the dinners, the diplomatic meetings, and who knows what else! You might as well get used to being measured and fitted now, instead of waiting until the last minute. Face it – getting measured is a little more personal than sitting in a chair and listening to Frau Unibrau reciting all our ancestors, from our parents back to Adam and Eve.

"And I'll be honest, Elsa. I'm _sick _of seeing you in that blue dress every day. You _need _something different to wear!"

When the seamstress arrived, she was briefed by Kai and Gerda in what to expect, and she signed the usual non-disclosure agreement. Elsa waited in her room, getting nervous. Anna decided to stay close to her, and it was a wise decision. She spent most of the measuring session just behind her older sister, with one reassuring hand on her shoulder and the other on her arm, while Elsa stood as rigid as an ice sculpture. It made the seamstress' work a little more difficult, but the alternative probably would have been much worse.

When the package with the new dresses arrived, Anna was a lot more excited about it than Elsa was. The future queen eventually got into the spirit of things, but it wasn't a natural response. It took effort to let herself relax and feel anything like a strong emotion, even something as simple as delight in a new dress.

Anna's next project for her sister didn't go quite so smoothly. There was one room in the house that Elsa steadfastly refused to enter. Anna knew that had to change.

"Once you're the queen, there will have to be balls," she said firmly. "Balls are held in a ballroom. If the new Queen won't even go into the ballroom... that will be bad. I know you have bad memories of that place, but –"

"No, you _don't_ know," Elsa retorted. "You cannot _imagine_ what that memory does to me! That memory has affected everything I've said and done for the past twelve years. I can't just put it down and let it go. It's not that easy, Anna."

"Okay, then how about if you –"

"_No,_ Anna!"

Anna tried everything she could think of. She even resorted to putting a small dish of chocolates in the middle of the ballroom floor. When Elsa saw what she'd done, she just rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Anna? You're so obvious, you're pathetic!" Within half an hour, the dish was gone. Anna suspected that Elsa had asked Gerda to get it for her.

A few nights later, Anna had to use the powder room. As she was returning to her own room, she thought she saw a light downstairs. There shouldn't be any lights there at this time of night. She crept down the great staircase to investigate.

She stopped at the doorway to the ballroom. Elsa was sitting in the middle of the floor, with one candle next to her. She looked like she'd been crying. As Anna watched, she stretched out her hand and made a shining ball of ice appear just above her palm. It hovered in mid-air for a few seconds; then it shot upwards and burst near the ceiling like a sparkling white firework. Elsa watched the gleaming snowflakes float down all around her, then hid her face in her hands and sobbed. But she made no move to leave the ballroom. After a few more seconds, Anna left her and went back to bed.

At breakfast the next morning, she quietly said to her older sister, "If I'd been watching you last night, I would have thought you were very brave. Of course, that's _if_ I'd been watching you." Elsa said nothing, and Anna didn't mention it again.

Anna slowly led her sister out of her self-imposed prison, one small step at a time over the space of three years, but there was one step that Elsa flatly refused to take. She would not set foot outside the palace.

"When all the guests show up for the coronation, are you magically going to be used to having crowds around, Elsa? You don't have to go very far! Just start getting used to having a bunch of people around. They won't be hostile – they'll be thrilled to see their future queen!"

"Anna, I can't! Just one stray snowflake, and it's all over for me! They'd think I'm a witch, and I'd be their _ex_-queen, as quick as _that!_" She snapped her fingers; a puff of snowflakes flew off her fingertips. Anna applied all her persuasive ways, but Elsa would not budge. When the snow began falling around them, Anna realized she'd pushed too hard, and backed off. After a few more such scenes, Anna gave up. She'd try to appreciate her sister for who she was and what she could do, and not focus on who she wasn't and what she couldn't do.


	9. Chapter 9

**Frozen Together** Chapter 9

It was coronation day.

Anna didn't exactly leap out of bed that morning. But with Gerda's help, she managed to tame her hair, get dressed, and look something like how a princess should look. She couldn't help but be excited. She'd taken plenty of trips outside the palace, but now, the gates were actually going to be opened! People would come and go freely for the first time in years! Guests would be coming! Royalty would be coming!

Maybe someone special would be coming...

Anna had the same dreams about young men as any other girl her age. She didn't know much about them, of course. Royal marriages were usually arranged by the parents, and a princess' first warning that a boy was entering her life could be her father congratulating her on her engagement. But in Elsa and Anna's case, there would be no such arrangements. The nobles who had run the kingdom until Elsa's majority would probably have something to say about it, but Anna realized that she might be able to pick a man of her own choosing.

How would that work? She had no idea whatsoever.

For all her romantic dreams, she could not be called boy-crazy. Her bizarre, strained, but increasingly close relationship with her sister kept her from feeling lonely or unappreciated. She wasn't desperate for a young man to give her life meaning. Her love for her sister, and the knowledge that no one else could effectively help Elsa cope with her special stress, gave her life all the meaning she needed.

How was Elsa taking the morning's preparations? Anna ran up the stairs to find out.

Elsa had been up early, and had gotten herself dressed and made up without help from any of the servants. She didn't want anyone around her. She was about to stand up in full view of the entire kingdom for the first time, and risk losing that kingdom in one unguarded moment.

"Conceal, don't feel... don't let it show..." she kept repeating to herself. "One wrong move and they all will know." She practiced holding the scepter and orb, using a candlestick and a candy dish. Every time she tried it, the "royal objects" visibly froze within seconds. This wasn't going to work.

Knock, knock, na-knock knock. "Hey, Your Majesty the Queen! Do you want to build a snowman?"

"Anna! Get _in_ here!" Elsa quickly put her gloves back on as her sister entered and shut the door behind her. Anna attempted a curtsy and nearly fell over.

"Ooh, don't _you_ look royal!" she exclaimed with a broad smile. That smile faded as she saw how worried her sister looked. "Elsa, you're going to be fine! I'll be right there beside you the whole time."

Elsa took her hands, wide-eyed and shaking. "I wish! But at the coronation and the presentation, no one can be right next to me except the bishop." She gestured at her makeshift royal objects, which still had a coating of frost on them. "That's where I'm going to ruin everything."

"But it's just for a couple of seconds!" Anna answered. "You pick up the royal jewelry, give everyone the regal look while the bishop reads all your titles, and put it down again. Maybe he'll forget you're supposed to take the gloves off." Elsa shook her head forlornly, but Anna went on. "I'll be right up there on the platform with you, just not close enough to touch. You can look at me if you get nervous. I'll be there."

"Anna... I'm scared," Elsa said simply.

"You'll do fine," Anna replied, and gave her a quick hug.

**o**

Ships were sailing into the fjord from all up and down the Norwegian coastline. Noble men and women in showy clothing were disembarking at the docks; some of them were visibly relieved to be on dry land again. Flags and pennants flew from the palace; a band was tuning up somewhere nearby; the street vendors were out in force. Today would be the most festive day Arendelle had seen in years!

Anna couldn't seem to drink in the pageantry fast enough. The coronation ceremony wouldn't happen until late afternoon, so her sister would be safe until then. She had nearly all day to enjoy the sights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes... but most of all, the people. She'd never seen such crowds! The people of her own kingdom knew her by sight, and greeted her happily but politely. The visitors assumed by her appearance that she was someone important, and greeted her respectfully. They certainly wouldn't have made that assumption by her behavior – she thought nothing of dancing on the edges of the bridge that joined the palace to the town, and she nearly ran headfirst into several barons, duchesses, and counts. But there was so much to see! Who had time to look where they were going?

When she finally did collide with someone, it turned out to be her luckiest break of the day. Actually, she collided with his horse and was nearly knocked into the water. She forgot that little detail when she took her first good look at him. He was gorgeous! He introduced himself as Prince Hans of the Southern Isles, and it was obvious to both of them that there was an immediate attraction. They had a lot in common, too.

"We even finish each other's..." he began.

"...salads!" she exclaimed.

"That's exactly what I was going to say," he smiled. They spent the rest of the day together in a joyous daze. As the time for the coronation grew near, he drew her aside. "Can I say something crazy? Will you marry me?"

Her voice died in her throat. Marry him? He was wonderfully perfect, or perfectly wonderful, or something like that... but... the "m" word? She wasn't quite ready for that.

Besides, his social rank was the same as hers, and he was a man and she wasn't, so _she'd_ have to live in _his_ kingdom in the Southern Isles. She couldn't stay with Elsa if she married Hans, no matter what airy promises she'd made before.

"Can I say something sensible?" she answered. "I'll need the Queen's permission."

"But there _is_ no Queen, and there won't be, for another hour and fifteen minutes," he urged her. "Come on! What do you say?"

For a long moment, she was tempted. But thoughts of Elsa held her back. She couldn't leave Arendelle unless she was sure her sister would be okay.

"I really do have to think it over," she said sadly. At his crestfallen expression, she went on, "But I promise I'll give you an answer before you have to sail home!"

"I guess I can live with that," he sighed. "Well, it's almost time for the ceremony. I have to meet someone first, but I'll see you there!"

"I'll save you a seat," she giggled, and scampered off toward the palace. Hans waited until she was out of sight before meeting his "associate" in a secluded part of the town park.

"Are you making any progress, Prince?" the short man with the glasses demanded.

"You might say that, Duke," the Prince replied, with just enough emphasis on the word "Duke" to remind him that, in spite of his greater age and experience, he was still dealing with someone who outranked him. "No one has seen the Queen anywhere. But I've met her younger sister, and she's eating out of my hand! She was _this_ close to accepting a marriage proposal."

"Oh, really?" the Duke of Weselton chuckled. "Excellent! We'll go with Plan B, then. You follow up with your Princess, I'll take care of the Queen, and our deal will soon be complete."

"What do you mean, 'take care of the Queen'?" Hans' voice took on a nervous edge.

"My boy, there's a lot about this grand game that you don't know yet," the Duke smiled patronizingly. "I can't teach you _all_ my tricks, because the situation could change tomorrow and we might become mortal enemies. But for now, I'll tell you this: one of the best ways to dispose of an adversary is to stand aside, keep your hands clean, and let them dispose of themselves. This Queen is keeping a secret. I intend to find out what that secret is, make it public, and then..." He rubbed his hands in anticipation.

"Yes, I know, I know," Hans went on. "I get the throne, you get the exclusive trade deal, and the royal line of Arendelle gets..."

"Nothing!" cackled the Duke.


	10. Chapter 10

**Frozen Together** Chapter 10

All the nobles had gathered in the palace's chapel, where the actual coronation would be held. Kai and Gerda had managed to get into the coronation ceremony... by joining the choir, singing an ancient hymn from the balcony. It was the only way a commoner could attend the social event of the decade. But they wouldn't miss this for the world.

The bishop had invoked God's presence on the scene, thanked all the distinguished guests for coming, and followed all the old traditions – the reading of Elsa's genealogy back to the first king and queen of Arendelle; a quick recital of the royal law of succession; the listing of Elsa's qualifications... on and on he went. More than one aging noble was seen to fall asleep in the pews, only to be awakened when he slumped over onto his neighbor. The kingdom's senior clergyman wasn't trying to be boring; he was saddled with tradition upon ancient tradition which he did not dare ignore, no matter how much he might wish to do so.

At last, the bishop asked, "Will the Queen Regnant-to-be please rise?"

Elsa and Anna stood together. The older sister stepped forward first, with Anna beside her and a step behind, as her attendant. When they reached the dais, Elsa stopped in front of the bishop, while Anna stepped aside. She gave Elsa a comforting touch on the shoulder as they drew apart. The queen-to-be stood alone. Perhaps not literally, but that was how she felt.

"Elsa of Arendelle, is there any reason that hinders you from freely accepting the crown of your land and your people?"

_Making snowstorms isn't on the list of disqualifiers,_ she thought. She answered out loud, "There is not."

"Elsa of Arendelle, as Queen Regnant, will you obey and promote all the laws of your kingdom, without seeking personal advantage, and will you seek justice for all, with favoritism toward none?"

_That's an easy one_. "I will"

"Elsa of Arendelle, as Queen Regnant, will you spend your life seeking the good of your kingdom and your people above all else?"

_Another easy one_. "I will."

"Elsa of Arendelle, as Queen Regnant, will you preserve and extend your royal line, in accordance with sacred tradition?"

_Ouch. I don't know how __that's__ going to work_. That part of the charge was used only if the new sovereign was single, or married but childless. It was a stern reminder that an important part of her duty was to produce an heir to the throne. What kind of man would want to marry a girl like her? Still, she had no intention of disobeying the command, so... "I will."

"Elsa of Arendelle, receive the royal crown in humility and in the fear of God, and with it, receive the title... and the responsibility... of Queen." She went down on one knee, and the bishop placed the tiny golden tiara on her head. It felt a lot heavier than she'd thought it would.

As she rose, the bishop turned and picked up the silk pillow that carried the royal scepter and orb. She'd only seen them a few times; they weren't trotted out for every tea party and cotillion in the palace, but only for the most formal of occasions. She hesitantly reached for them.

"Ahem... Your Majesty... the gloves." The bishop's voice was not unkind; he just assumed that she'd forgotten about them.

Her eyes widened. She tried not to let her hands shake as she removed the gloves. She forgot to look toward Anna; she forgot everything except her own fingertips, and the destruction that could issue forth from them without warning. She forced herself to take the royal implements, and turned to face the guests. She had no difficulty looking solemn – she was nearly scared to death.

The bishop read off her titles and blessings, ending with "...Queen Elsa of Arendelle." It was at that moment that she felt the ice crystals forming near her hands. She hastily put the scepter and orb back on the pillow, and put her gloves back on as the guests applauded politely. She wasn't supposed to return the implements quite that soon, but everyone attributed it to nerves. Apparently, the bishop did not notice the frost.

It was time for the receiving line. Anna was allowed to stand right next to the new Queen as she greeted all the guests. "That was close," Elsa whispered to her.

"I told you, you'd do fine," Anna whispered back. She hadn't seen the frost on the scepter. Everyone lined up to greet the Queen, congratulate her, and wish her well. No one commented on the gloves.

Then came the formal dinner, put on by the best cooks in the land. This time, a few people did comment (quietly) about the fact that Queen Elsa didn't take her gloves off to dine. It wasn't unspeakably rude, but it was certainly a breach of protocol. The usual way to deal with these things was to arrange for the head waiter to make a discreet comment like, "Would the Queen honor me by allowing me to hold her gloves while she dines?" He did so.

"No, but thank you, Pierre," Elsa replied graciously. The head waiter gave a Gallic shrug; there was nothing more he could do.

During the meal, the Duke of Weselton approached the head table. "Congratulations on your ascension, Your Highness," he gushed. "I wonder if I might have a moment of your attention for a matter of great importance to both Arendelle and Weselton?"

Elsa could guess what _that_ might be. In Weselton's Bibles, the First Commandment was not "You shall have no gods before me," but rather, "Once you have their money, you never give it back." At least, that was the common joke, which Anna had passed on to her as part of her preparations for today. Arendelle had a long history of trading her excess goods to Weselton in exchange for the excess goods Weselton got from other trade partners. It was good for both kingdoms, but the Duke's realm always wanted more. This would be Queen Elsa's first try at being diplomatic.

"I am thankful for the long and faithful friendship Arendelle has shared with Weselton," she said sweetly, "but if this 'matter of great importance' does not involve this delicious dessert we're eating, I must request that it wait until the trade meetings, which will be held later in the week. I am sure you will find nothing lacking in our proposals."

"Your Highness, I humbly request that –"

"Duke, _please,_" she said tightly. Anna saw her tense up, and quickly laid a hand on her shoulder. The Queen relaxed slightly. "We will deal with all things at the proper time. I believe _this_ is the proper time for chocolate pudding." She turned back to her plate and took another delicate bite, ignoring the Duke's irritated expression. He stalked back to his place, sat down with a huff, and threw daggers at Elsa with his eyes. His pudding went untouched.

At last it was time for the coronation ball. Queen Elsa was called forward and formally introduced; then Princess Anna was called to stand beside her. They smiled at each other. The evening, and Elsa's ordeal, were going pretty well and would soon be over.

The first one to approach them was the persistent Duke. Anna saw her sister stiffen, and began to move towards her, but then had a better idea and scooted aside into the wings of the ballroom. "Your Highness, again may I congratulate you on your coronation?" the Duke began. "I simply wish to expand on our previous profitable relationship in order to..."

Elsa couldn't believe the man's gall! Was he deliberately trying to provoke her? And where was Anna when she was most needed? Elsa saw her sister in the wings, gesturing frantically to get her attention. She was mouthing something. _Olaf?_ Why did she want Olaf?

The Duke was still blathering on, and Elsa thought she might burst if she couldn't shut the man up. That wouldn't end well, but she was running out of options... and patience. She decided to trust Anna's judgment; she made a quick gesture, and a small snowman appeared right next to her sister, out of sight of everyone else. Anna bent down, formed ears on the snowman, drew glasses on it, and swiftly turned Olaf into a passable caricature of the Duke.

It was all Elsa could do to not break up laughing. She hid a giggle behind her hand, just as the Duke was trying to sound extra-appealing, and he attributed it to a girlish reaction to his charms. Before he could go on, the butler began reading the names of some late-arriving guests who wanted to greet the new Queen, and the Duke was forced to step aside. When Anna rejoined her sister a few seconds later, Elsa was completely relaxed.

"Did you like my sculpture?" Anna giggled.

"Thank you, Anna," Elsa smiled. "That was perfect. But it would be best if no one else saw it." She gestured, and the snowman turned into a puff of snowflakes in the air that quickly melted away.

Amid the many clusters of royalty who had gathered in the ballroom, Hans met up with his co-conspirator. "What's up, Duke?" he smiled.

"I don't see you making any progress with your princess," the short nobleman replied icily.

"I don't see you making much progress with the Queen, either," Hans shot back, without losing his smile.

"At least I'm trying," the Duke said tightly. "You're just enjoying the ball! Real-life diplomacy doesn't take a break for your social life, boy! Now get up there and make another play for your future princess, before some other man gets her first."

Hans grumped away, but his smile returned as he got closer to Anna. She really was something special. Anna's eyes lit up when she saw him. She rushed to greet him, then grabbed his hand and half-dragged him over to the Queen.

"Elsa... I'm sorry, Your Highness. This is Prince Hans of the Southern Isles," she introduced him. The Queen extended her gloved hand; he bowed over it, then straightened and smiled.

"Your Majesty," he greeted her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Prince Hans," she smiled quietly.

"We just met today," Anna went on, "and we have so much in common, it's amazing!" She giggled nervously. "He's asked me to marry him."

Elsa looked shocked. "He _what?_"

"Of course, I haven't given him my answer yet," Anna continued, oblivious to her sister's reaction, "but isn't he wonderful? He has twelve brothers – can you believe it?"

"Anna..."

"And we both like the same foods, and we have the same favorite color, and we finish each other's salads, and we both hate bagpipe music, and –"

"Anna! May I talk to you, please? _Alone?_"

Anna felt like she'd been slapped in the face. Why was Elsa suddenly being so unkind, so unfeeling? "No!" she burst out. "Whatever you have to say, you can..." and then her voice trailed off. She could feel, rather than see, Elsa's stress level rising.

She had never felt such an inner conflict before in her life. On the one hand, the prince of her dreams was courting her with all his heart, and the only thing between her and endless happiness was her stubborn, irrational, not-a-people-person sister. On the other hand, she sensed that Elsa was getting close to a meltdown, and the only person who could stop that was her, and...

...and _she_ was the direct cause of Elsa's stress this time.

Elsa's biggest problem was her fear of hurting Anna somehow. Anna had spent most of the past three years helping her overcome that fear, even though the process was far from complete. And now, she had found a brand-new way to push Elsa over the edge.

"All right," she said resignedly. "Alone. Hans, this probably won't take long." She forced a giggle. "It's my first private audience with the Queen!" The two sisters quickly retreated to the wings of the hall.

"Anna, you can't marry a man you just met!"

"What's wrong with him, Elsa? Are you just jealous because I might get married before you?"

Anger flashed in Elsa's eyes; a patch of the wall behind them suddenly iced over. "Anna, how _dare_ you! All I'm doing is looking out for you, just like you've always looked out for me!" Before Anna could respond, she went on, "What's wrong with him? I'll tell you. Nothing! He's perfect. He's _too_ perfect! He sounds just like that boy you told me about, whom Father almost pledged you to, until he found out the boy was a fake nobleman. Perfect princes don't just pop out of the woodwork and latch onto the first pretty face they see!"

Anna was looking like she might either cry or explode. Elsa took her hands. "Anna, I just want you to be happy... and safe. If he was asking to formally court you, I'd give my permission _and_ my blessing, right here, right now, in front of a whole room full of royal witnesses. But marriage? To a total stranger?" She sighed. "What would _you_ say if _I_ suddenly showed up with a young man on my arm and told you I was going to marry him?"

"I'd say..." Anna paused, a lot longer than she'd planned to. She cast her eyes on the floor and sniffled slightly. "I'd say you were crazy and you shouldn't do it." Then she looked up. "But, Elsa, this is true love! At least, I think it is."

"I'm not saying you can't get to know this prince," Elsa tried to reassure her. "I hope you do! And I hope he turns out to be just as wonderful as you think he is. But _nobody_ is getting engaged tonight, or tomorrow, or any time this week."

Anna looked stricken. "But I promised him I'd give him an answer before he sailed home!"

"Then tell him your answer is, 'Not yet.' I'm not forbidding you to see him or spend time with him, Anna. I'm just forbidding you to marry him when you don't even know his last name."

Anna brightened. "What if I _do_ learn his last name?"

"Anna..." Elsa was getting angry again. Anna had to settle her down fast.

"Okay, okay, okay, no last name." Anna counted on her fingers as she went on. "No marriage. No engagement. No boyfriend. We're just good buds. No pressure, no embarrassing scenes, we'll all just go enjoy the ball. Okay?"

Elsa wasn't sure if her sister was sincerely agreeing with her, or was just saying all the right things to avoid a confrontation. But she didn't want to dwell on it. If matters were smoothed over now, they could be fully resolved later, with fewer witnesses and less pressure. The important thing now was to get through the ball without letting all those witnesses see her secret. She nodded, let Anna return to her handsome prince, took a deep breath, and prepared to rejoin the party.

But while she was out of view, she had to do something with her eye makeup, which was flaking and threatening to get in her eye. She removed a glove and carefully wiped her eye clear with a fingertip... and suddenly, there before her was that stubborn Duke again!

"Ahh, there you are, Your Highness! I don't mean to be impertinent, but I truly do wish to put an important proposal before you..."

"Duke, _please!_" she almost begged as she swept past him. "Let's leave the trade agreements until later, and just return to the ball, shall we?"

"My young Queen, I am _shocked_ at the way you're treating me! Your parents always showed proper respect for representatives of Weselton!"

That stung. How dare he invoke the memory of her father and mother! "Duke, that is quite enough." She was beginning to lose the control she'd maintained all night. She could distantly hear Anna's voice saying, "Excuse me... let me through, please... pardon me..."

The Duke didn't take the hint. "I think they'd be hurt if they could see how their daughter turned out! Perhaps it's good that they didn't live to see this day!"

"I _said,_ ENOUGH!" she screamed, and swept her hand in a back-off gesture. White sparks flew from her bare fingers. With a horrible roaring, ringing sound, a thick wall of wickedly pointed icicles sprang out of the floor, nearly impaling the Duke.

Shocked silence fell over the room. Elsa stared in horror at what she'd done. Anna rushed to her sister's side, about three seconds too late. The Duke fell back behind his hired goons.

"Sorcery!" he gasped. "I knew there was something insidious going on here!"

Elsa took one more look, turned, and fled out of the palace.

The Queen was supposed to appear on a balcony soon, so the massed common people in the palace courtyard could see their new sovereign. They were quite surprised when she burst into the courtyard at ground level instead, and instead of looking calm and serene, she was moving at a dead run.

"Are you all right, Your Highness?" a concerned woman asked. Elsa could only shake her head "no."

Anna appeared in the doorway. "Elsa, wait! Please!"

The Duke nearly pushed her out of the way. "She's a witch! She's a monster! Stop her!"

"No," Elsa sobbed. "Just keep him away from me!" She shrank away until she bumped into a water fountain. Suddenly, the water spray froze into a weird, frightening shape. All the common people gasped in terror and shrank away from her. A child began crying.

"Everyone, please!" Anna shouted as she ran into the courtyard. "It's not what you think! Elsa, think happy thoughts!"

"Are you a sorceress, too?" the Duke demanded, as he and his guards followed her. "Are you in league with that monster?"

"That's my _sister _you're talking about, _Duke_!" Anna shot back angrily.

"You all heard her!" the Duke shouted to the people. "She'd rather take the side of that _witch _than side with the _truth!_" Ugly murmurs began to ripple through the crowd.

Elsa ran. She hadn't been out of the palace since she was seven; she didn't know her own kingdom; she had no idea where to go. All she knew was that she had to get away before she hurt someone. Her ability to control herself was coming unglued.

She found herself at the water's edge, unable to go any farther. Behind her, she heard Anna calling for her, and it sounded like her prince was with her. She turned to face them, stepped back... and realized that she'd stepped onto the water, which had instantly frozen beneath her feet. Resolutely, she set out across the water, which quickly froze with each footstep.

As she made her way into the highlands, she was surrounded by falling snow; that wasn't unusual for her. She didn't see that all the lands around the palace were also being engulfed in snow. She didn't see the entire fjord freezing outward from where she'd walked. She didn't see the summer night sky become hidden behind a thick cloud layer. She didn't see people shivering and running for shelter as the temperature plummeted. Her power and her tortured emotions had set off an extraordinary chain reaction, and the entire kingdom of Arendelle was quickly encased in winter.

But she soon knew that she was being followed. "Elsa! Wait!" came a voice through the thick snow.

"Anna? Please, go back!"

"No, Elsa! I'm going with you!"

"You don't even know where I'm going! _I_ don't even know!"

"Maybe not, but I know you're not going there alone!" Before Elsa could reply, Anna caught up with her, stepping in her sister's footprints in the snow. "Don't try and out-stubborn me, Elsa. I always win. I'm staying with you, and that's that."

The stresses of the day and the evening had worn Elsa down. There was no more resistance left in her.

Two lonely figures made their way higher and higher up the mountainside that towered over the cold, white palace of Arendelle.


	11. Chapter 11

**Frozen Together** Chapter 11

The rocky spurs of the North Mountain were among the most inhospitable places in all Arendelle. They were well above the tree line; no living thing grew there. In summer, over half their area was covered in snow and ice; in winter, they were covered completely. There was nothing of value there. They were just about the last place anyone would ever want to go.

Tonight, there were two people there. Two tiny specks in brightly-colored clothing were making their slow way across the snowfields, dwarfed by the towering mountain above them.

"The wind is really blowing up here," Anna said through chattering teeth.

"Not half as bad as I blew it down there," Elsa replied sadly.

"Elsa, you're only human!" Anna burst out. "That Duke was worse than rude – he was cruel! I heard those things he was saying... I tried to get to you in time, but I couldn't get through the crowd fast enough..."

"Don't blame yourself, Anna. I'm the one who ruined everything."

They walked on for a while without speaking. Finally, Anna felt like she had to break the oppressive silence.

"The moon's so bright on the mountain tonight." She glanced back, where the wind was carrying drifting snow across their path. "Soon, our footprints won't be seen."

"A kingdom of ice!" Elsa exclaimed.

"Isolation," Anna corrected her. "With one subject and a queen." As Elsa hung her head in dejection at the thought of all she'd just lost, Anna tried to console her. "There's no allowing for the way that Duke had lied!"

"I couldn't keep it in," the Queen said sadly. "Heaven knows I tried." Bitterly, she thought of all the years she'd tried to obey her parents' commands... and what had it gotten her?

"I let them in, I let them see!" she sighed. "No more good girl – it wasn't meant to be! 'Conceal, don't feel' just brought me woe!"

Anna wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder. "Well, now they know. Let it go."

"Let it go?" Elsa had never considered such a thing.

"Why hold it back anymore?" Anna asked.

"Let it go!" Elsa pulled off her other glove and began shooting icy sparks from her hands – first just a few feet up, then high into the sky. She made an Olaf with a casual gesture, then fired some blasts that sent the snow flying.

"Let it go!" Anna echoed her. "It's so beautiful and pure!" She was loving what she was seeing... but she was also shivering. Neither of them had come from the ball dressed for mountain climbing, Anna even less so than Elsa.

"In this air, you won't last a day!" Elsa exclaimed. "Here, put my cape on." She wrapped the heavy cape around her sister's shoulders, and doubled it for extra warmth. When Anna tried to resist, Elsa waved her off. "The cold never bothered me anyway," she said dismissively. They walked on.

Elsa just couldn't get over the Duke's behavior. "It's funny, his insistence just made him look more small."

Anna was more interested in the change that was coming over her sister. Now that they were away from everyone and her secret was out, she wasn't acting like the old Elsa at all. She seemed to be coming alive at last. "But the fears that once controlled you... like snowflakes, watch them fall!"

They came to a chasm that was far too wide to jump across. Elsa looked down to the bottom, then back at Anna with a sly grin. "It's time to see what I can do. I'll build a bridge and bring us through!"

Anna worried that a bridge made out of ice might not be strong enough to hold them. Elsa seemed to sense her sister's concern. "I can't go wrong if you're with me. You'll see!" She gestured with both hands, and the beginnings of a bridge appeared. But it wasn't a copy of the usual Arendelle wooden footbridge. It was a fairy staircase, light and beautiful, made entirely of ice. It was the first time she'd ever tried to do something useful with her power, instead of just doing tricks. Would it be strong enough? Elsa hesitantly put her weight on the first step... and it held her!

There was no holding her back now. She ran ahead fearlessly, bringing more of the bridge into being with each step. "Let it go! Let it go!" she shouted. "We're unstoppable, you and I!"

Anna followed as fast as she could, overjoyed at the sight of her sister bursting out of her self-imposed shell like a butterfly from the chrysalis. "Let it go! Let it go! I'm so happy, I could cry!"

They reached the other side. It looked a lot like where they had just come from, except there was a deep chasm between there and here. Elsa slammed her foot down on the snow, and a huge, beautiful snowflake pattern spread out from her footprint. "Here we'll stand, Anna, come what may!" As her sister caught up with her, Elsa realized that Anna was still shivering. "But the storm blows on..."

She _had_ to get Anna out of this wind before she froze to death!

She looked around. There was little chance of finding a mountain-man's shack this high up. Even a cave in the rocks would help, but there were no caves to be seen. Then she glanced back at her bridge, and realized that she was no longer bound by the state of things as she saw them. She grinned at the thought that occurred to her.

She pulled Anna close, and made a mighty gesture. Anna gasped as their huge snowflake began to rise off the ground! With a rumble, pillars of ice rose up all around it, growing, spreading, joining together into walls. Spires rose high, then were engulfed by bigger spires that rose even higher. In the midst of this act of creation, Elsa was joyously leaping and dancing like some kind of elemental spirit. With every move, white sparks flew from her fingertips into the floor, then flashed out all around them and up the walls, which rose to dizzying heights before they arched inward to form a vaulted ceiling. An amazing six-branched chandelier reached down from the ceiling, shining with refracted light.

"The cold and flurries in the air will pull you down," Elsa explained. "A simple shack of ice won't do for one who wears a crown. But all these crystals will hold back the icy blast." She watched as the last details of her amazing ice palace formed themselves. "We're never going back – we've made our place at last!" Everything would be different from now on!

Perhaps she should even _look_ different?

She recalled Anna's words – "Did you ever want to get a makeover? You know – new hairstyle, new makeup, new clothes, new shoes..."

She pulled her royal tiara out of her hair, gazed at it sadly for a few seconds, then tossed it aside. She pulled her hair free of its confinement, shook it out, and let her long braid fall over her left shoulder. Oh, that felt _good!_

"Let it go, let it go!" Anna encouraged her. "You've held it for far too long!"

"Let it go, let it go!" Elsa nodded. "Together, we are strong!"

Now she had to change her dress. A shimmer of ice along the bottom hem swiftly engulfed the whole garment. First its color changed; then the ice crystals began working into the very fabric itself. In moments, her conservative coronation dress had become a form-fitting ice-blue outfit, the likes of which no Queen of Arendelle had ever dreamed of wearing, or would have dared to wear if they _had_ thought of it. She finished it with a delicate cape of pure fine ice, decorated in snowflake patterns. She looked beautiful, and she felt beautiful, too.

She led her sister out onto the balcony, where they had a spectacular view of the sun coming up over the mountains. "Here we stand at the break of day! Let that Duke rave on!"

"The fool never cared for you anyway," Anna added softly, and wiped a tear away. "That was beautiful, Elsa! It was like watching a flower open up and blossom."

"You like my new palace?" Elsa smiled.

"I love it," Anna nodded, "and I like your new look, too. But I was talking about _you_. You're fearless, you're happy, you're confident... you're _alive again!_" She yawned hugely. "I wish _I_ felt that alive."

"Well, you've been celebrating all day, and climbing mountains all night," Elsa nodded. "I suppose we both need some sleep." She wasn't thinking about sleep herself – she was still running on a serious dose of adrenaline.

"Mm-hmm," Anna said drowsily. "But I don't think sleeping on blocks of ice will do it for me."

"Me neither," Elsa nodded. "Let me think..." After a few seconds, she brought a bed frame of ice into being, complete with lacy, ornate headboard and footboard. Then she called up a swirling cloud of flying snowflakes, taller than she was. By gesturing with her hands, she squeezed the cloud down until it was just a few inches thick, and the same length and width as the bed frame. Anna pushed on this strange swirling mattress; it yielded under her hand, and even felt soft. When she removed her hand, it sprang back into shape.

"That's amazing, Elsa!" she exclaimed. "But it's... cold." She looked hopefully at her sister.

"Anna, you and I haven't shared a bed since you were three years old and afraid of the thunder!" Elsa chuckled. "But, until we can get some blankets up here, I guess that's the only way." They lay down together for warmth, with Elsa's cape wrapped tightly around Anna, and soon they were giving way to drowsiness, in spite of the night's excitement.

Just before they fell asleep, Elsa whispered, "Anna... I'm glad you came with me."

Anna whispered back, "I'm glad you finally got to be the big sister."

"I'm glad _you're_ still the awesome sister," Elsa said.

"Not me," Anna replied sleepily. "I think that's one of _your_ royal titles."

"I'll share it with you," Elsa replied after thinking for a few seconds. But Anna was already asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**Frozen Together** Chapter 12

It was the first day of the royal sisters' new life. They slept through the first half of it.

It was nearly noon when they finally stirred. Elsa's snow-and-air mattress, while chilly, was as comfortable as any feather mattress Anna had ever slept on. Being up all night after a stressful day helped, too. They stretched and took stock of their situation.

"I think we need three things, to get started," Elsa decided as she braided Anna's hair. "We need food, we need blankets, and we need to find you some warm clothes to wear."

"I can help with the food part, a little," Anna said with a trace of a smile. She untied a fancy cloth pouch from her belt sash and opened it.

Elsa's eyes went wide. "_Chocolate?!_ Anna, how did you...?"

Anna giggled. "I figured I might want a late-night snack after the ball was over, so I sort of... grabbed a few pieces off the dessert table when nobody was watching."

Elsa tried to look stern. "A few pieces? That looks like half the tray! Anna of Arendelle, that was _not _very princess-like behavior!"

Anna shrugged. "If you really think it's that bad, then maybe you shouldn't eat any."

"Hmmm." Elsa thought fast. "I think I'll offer you my very first royal pardon. So that takes care of _that_ problem. Does this count as breakfast or lunch?"

"Who cares?" Anna grinned. They both enjoyed their chocolate meal together in an extremely un-princess-like manner, with much licking of fingers.

Their brunch was delicious, but not very filling. Once they were done, they took a long look all around them. Elsa thought she saw smoke rising from a nearby valley. "It's probably just a mountain man's shack," she decided, "but he can tell us where we can buy the stuff we need."

"Elsa, it might be best if I went alone," Anna suggested. "It might scare the guy if you tried to pay him with... cold cash."

"Anna, that wasn't funny," Elsa scowled. "But I suppose you're right. I can make us some furniture and decorations while you're gone. You'll be careful, right?"

"Don't worry about me, Elsa. I can take care of myself!" Anna showed what she thought were some good fighting moves, and nearly fell when her shoe got hung up in her skirt; Elsa caught her and held her up. "Well, anyway, I'll be back by sunset." They hugged quickly, and Anna set off on her shopping trip.

She soon found out why shopping expeditions are called "trips." Her path led mostly downhill, the way was steep, and she tripped and fell several times on the way down. "If this is what Gerda goes through when she shops for the palace, I should double her pay," Anna said to herself. By the time she found the source of the smoke they'd seen from the ice palace, she was sore, cold, disheveled, bedraggled, and not feeling much like a princess.

As she approached the wooden building, the door flew open, and a mountain of a man carried a mountain man outside and threw him in the snow. "Oaken is _not_ a crook!" the bigger man exclaimed, and stormed back inside.

A reindeer left the sled where it had been standing, scampered over, and licked the snow-covered man's face. "No, Sven, I didn't get your carrots," the man said sadly. "But I did find us a place to sleep. And it's free!"

Anna walked over to him cautiously. "Excuse me, but could you..." Then she remembered how princesses were supposed to present themselves. She drew herself up to her full height (such as it was) and tried to look regal. "Ahem, good sir. I noticed your comment about spending the night. Would that mean that you are available to run an errand before nightfall?"

"Maybe," the man said, rubbing his neck. "What kind of errand?"

"I intend to purchase some supplies here, and I will need transportation back up the mountain when I am finished." She didn't think her "princess act" was fooling anyone, but she felt like it was expected of her.

"Up the mountain?" the man repeated. "_That_ mountain?" He gestured with his thumb at the tall, dark mountain behind them. "There's nothing up there!"

"There is now. Do you have any other pressing... uhh... things to do?"

"Not really," he sighed as he got to his feet. "The ice business isn't working for me this summer. Actually, nothing is working for me this summer." He looked at her speculatively. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to pay me for this errand of yours? I mean, I'm not greedy or anything, but a man's got to eat."

"Fair compensation for services rendered would be... fair." She felt like she was running out of fancy words. She'd been taught how princesses often talk to common people, but she'd never actually had to practice it. She felt ridiculous. It's not like she actually thought she was better than this mountain man, or anyone else, for that matter.

"Okay," the man said. "Fifty øren for one trip up the mountain." She glared at him haughtily. "Okay, thirty-five." She glared again. "Fine. Twenty and a bunch of carrots for Sven." The reindeer licked his chops.

"Very well. I accept. I will be out soon." She swept past him, hoping he hadn't seen her shivering, and entered the trading post.

"Hoo-hoo! Big summer blowout!" the owner smiled from behind the counter. "Beach umbrellas, insect repellent, and tools for the barbecue!"

"I'll think it over," she said, dropping the princess voice. "What I really need is some winter boots, warm clothes, and blankets."

"Ahh, those would be in our winter department," Oaken said, his smile fading. "Unfortunately, our winter department is not so much on sale. In fact, our winter department is not so much in stock." He wasn't kidding; there was almost nothing left. She was able to find a pair of boots that fit fairly well, a coat that was badly out of style but would keep her warm, and a matching set of wool bonnet, scarf, and mittens. Oaken's face lit up when she placed the latter on his counter.

"Ahh, yes, very good choice! Those were knitted by my very own granny. Perhaps you will say 'hello' to my granny if you enjoy the sauna? Granny loves to say 'hello'." He opened the door to the sauna. "Hello, Granny!" he called. Anna kept shopping.

She found a few blankets that looked like they would be warm enough, although their colors clashed with her coat, her bonnet, and each other. Finding food was the easy part – she wanted foodstuffs that didn't require cooking, and nearly everything in Oaken's food inventory fell into the "preserved" category. She remembered the carrots for the reindeer as well. She paid for her purchases, then had a thought.

"That man out there," she said quietly. "Is he... all right?"

Oaken bobbed his head. "He is rude man sometimes, but he is not bad man. We play this game together many times, ja? Tomorrow he will come back with much better manners, and I will wait on him nicely."

"Thank you, Mr. Oaken," she said, and lugged her purchases outside. The mountain man had the reindeer already hitched to his sled. He slung Anna's purchases into the back, helped her into the sled, shared a carrot with Sven (which made Anna cringe), and away they went.

"Since we're going to be in this sled together for a while, I guess we should introduce ourselves," the man said. "I'm Kristoff, and that's Sven."

"I am Princess Anna," she replied, trying to sound regal without being haughty about it.

"Princess?" the man gasped. "If I'd known I was giving rides to royalty, I would have cleaned all the food wrappers out of my sled first!"

It was a slow, uphill journey. Anna made good use of the time by doing something she hadn't been able to do for a week: talk. Elsa had been completely preoccupied with preparations for the coronation, and Anna had felt like she was alone in the palace again. Now she had a captive audience who was curious about what she had to say... or at least certain parts of it.

"...so then, this Duke comes up, I _swear_ he looked like a monkey, especially with those two gorillas backing him up wherever he goes, I think they'd be excellent at gorilla warfare, I know that wasn't really funny, but it came to me and I had to say it; anyway, this Duke comes up to my sister in the _middle_ of the formal supper and he wants to talk about _trade agreements!_ Honestly, the man has _no_ sense of time or place, my sister _tried_ to be polite about it, she did a better job than _I_ ever could have, I would have taken him by the –"

"Wait! You said you almost got engaged to a man you _just met that day?_"

"Well, yes, but it's okay when it's true love, isn't it?"

"And his proposal is still open?" Kristoff marveled.

"Of course it is!" she burst out. "I haven't given him an answer yet. Now pay attention! I was saying –"

"You haven't told him 'no'?"

This mountain man just didn't get it! "How can I tell him 'no' if I'm not sure he's the one or not? That's silly!"

"Anna... I mean, Your Highness... you can't marry someone you don't even know!"

Anna sighed in exasperation. "Kristoff, I'm grateful for your help, but you're starting to sound just like my sister!"

"I sound like a girl?" he exclaimed. "Sven, why didn't you tell me my voice was changing?"

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings," he replied in his Sven-voice.

"No, I meant – hey, why are we stopping in the middle of nowhere?" Anna wondered nervously.

"Sven needs to rest," Kristoff explained. "We're about halfway up the mountain, and it gets steeper from here on up." He unhitched the reindeer and gave him a carrot, which Sven nearly inhaled. They stretched their legs in the forest clearing, enjoying the silent beauty of the ice-coated tree branches and the frozen stream with its motionless waterfalls. Anna considered how she'd felt when she came through this patch of woods on the way downhill, and was grateful for her new warm clothing.

Suddenly, Kristoff held up a warning finger and guided Anna back toward the sled. "Something's coming!" he whispered.

Anna tensed up. "Are there wolves in this forest?" she quavered.

"In the daytime? Not usually." Sven growled and struck a point. A moment later, they saw what he was pointing at. It was not a wolf... it was a...

"_Olaf!_" Anna burst out. The fact that her childhood snowman was walking around on his own didn't astonish her as much as it might have in the past, before she'd seen her sister do amazing tricks with snow and ice.

"You know this... guy?" Kristoff was stunned.

"Hi!" the snowman greeted her. "I'm Olaf, and... I'm sorry, but have we met?"

She got down on her knees in the snow so she wouldn't tower over him. "Well, we've never been formally introduced, but I've known you for a long, long time."

"That's good," he agreed. "Old friends are the best, even if I don't remember you. Anyway, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs! And _you_ are...?"

"Anna, and I like warm hugs, too." She had a sudden flashback to that scene in Elsa's room, where a snowman very much like this one had helped bring them back together at last. She bent and gave the snowman the warmest hug she could give.

Kristoff noticed her getting a bit teary-eyed. "Do you two have a history together or something?" he wondered, confused.

"Ooh! Histories can be great!" the snowman burst out. "Was it a good history or a bad history?"

"Good... definitely good," Anna nodded. Kristoff was getting more confused by the moment.

"That's good," Olaf agreed. "I wouldn't want to be a bad guy. I don't think I could play a bad guy. I don't look the part. I don't have a bad guy's nose. Actually, I don't have any nose at all."

"I think we could fix that – right, Kristoff?" Anna took one of Sven's carrots and set it into the snowman's head. But she pushed too hard, and less than two inches of carrot could be seen on his face when she was done. She was dismayed, but Olaf seemed to like it.

"Oh, what an adorable little nose! It's an anime nose! Maybe I should go for the chibi look?" His eyes suddenly grew huge and dark, and his head got bigger. "Does chibi work for me?"

She just pushed the rest of the carrot forward from the back of his head until it was in its intended position. Olaf gasped in delight. "Look at my nose... It's a beautiful snowman's nose! I mean it's a beautiful nose for a snowman, not a nose for a beautiful snowman." He turned back to Anna. "Be honest – does this nose make my butt look big?"

"Look, guys, this is all very heartwarming and everything, but can we get moving?" Kristoff urged them.

"Heartwarming... that sounds nice," Olaf nodded. "Some day I'd love to find out what it's like to be warm all over. Summer! That's what I'd like to experience!"

"Uhh, let me guess," Kristoff thought out loud. "You've never been around in the summer, right?"

"Only in _this_ summer, and this feels more like winter," the snowman nodded. "I want to feel the sun on my face, and get a tan, and maybe do some sunbathing... wouldn't that be the living end?"

"For you, yes," Kristoff nodded in disbelief. "For now, can we _please_ get going? I want to deliver the lady's stuff and get out of these woods before nightfall."

"Yes, you're right," Anna nodded. "Elsa will be wondering where I've gone."

"_Elsa?_" Kristoff and Olaf both exclaimed at once.

"Elsa is the one who made me!" the snowman went on. "I have to meet her and thank her! Maybe she made me so I could do something special for her. I need to find out what that is."

"You're Princess Anna, and you're going to see Elsa?" Kristoff wondered, stunned. "As in, _Queen_ Elsa?"

"Yes, that's her," Anna said.

"Queen Elsa is up on the North Mountain? What's she doing up _there?_ Is she okay?"

"I can honestly say, she's never been better in her life," Anna said softly.

"Okay... okay... okay, I need to figure this out," Kristoff said distractedly, waving his hands. "I woke up this morning, wondering what I was going to do to earn a living today. Now I find I'm delivering sausage and lutefisk to the Queen of Arendelle, and I'm trading comments with a talking snowman! Where did today go wrong? Should I have taken that left turn at Albakkerki? No, no, don't answer that. We _do_ need to get moving!"

"You said it!" exclaimed Olaf. "Can I go with you... what did she call you? Rice Krispies?"

"That's Kristoff," the man said tightly.

"Sorry, Rice Kristoff. If you're going to see Elsa, then I'm going, too." The snowman bounced into the back of the sled, sat on top of Anna's provisions, and began shouting at the reindeer, "Giddy-up! Mush! Charge! Uhh... fetch!" Sven looked back and stuck his tongue out at him. Kristoff harnessed the reindeer, and they were soon making their way up the mountainside again.

When they reached the chasm, Kristoff stopped and climbed out, utterly stunned. There before him was the most amazing ice stairway he had ever seen... and it paled in magnificence compared to the sparkling castle on the next spur of the mountain.

"Now _that's_ ice," he sighed. "Now I've seen everything. I can die a happy man."

"Don't die yet," Anna pleaded. "You need to help me get my stuff up the stairs to the front door."

"What _is_ this place?" he asked softly as they climbed the blue-white stairs.

"This is the new Royal Palace," Anna said. "Queen Elsa and I live here now."

"I know this wasn't here yesterday. Where did it come from?"

Anna thought fast. "The Queen wanted it to be built in less than a day, and it was done." _There, Gerda – I didn't tell a lie,_ she thought.

Kristoff stopped when he got to the first step of the palace. "I can't put my dirty boots on this," he said reverently, and set Anna's bundles down in the snow. "I need to get back down the mountain before the wolves come out."

"Thanks for the lift," Olaf smiled.

"Yes, thank you for the help," Anna added, gave him his twenty-øren coin, and touched him on the arm as he turned to leave.

The woods were chilly as he and Sven made their way back down the mountain. The wind was beginning to pick up, and there were traces of snow in the air. Still, he couldn't remember _ever_ feeling more warm inside.


	13. Chapter 13

**Frozen Together** Chapter 13

Back in the town, the situation was close to chaos. The sudden onset of winter weather in summer had caught the entire population without firewood, and their warm clothes were packed away in attics and storage areas. The guests who had traveled to see the coronation had nothing warm to wear at all.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that the government had been decapitated. Both the new Queen and the Princess had run away to parts unknown, leaving no one in their place to make decisions. Nasty rumors about the Queen were spreading fast, aided by the Duke's constant references to her as "the Bringer of Winter." It was an open question if she could have reigned effectively if she'd stayed. Anna was much-loved by the people, and they would have gladly followed her orders. But she, too, was gone.

There was no shortage of nobility who were willing, yea, eager to fill their shoes. Nearly everyone on the coronation guest list had the rank and breeding to rule the palace and the town, if not the whole kingdom. It was decided to call a conclave, and from among the worthy noblemen and women who were present (and couldn't leave if they wanted to), someone would be chosen to lead Arendelle out of this crisis.

The conclave was going nowhere until Prince Hans of the Southern Isles suddenly stood up and exclaimed, "I just remembered! Just before Princess Anna ran off into the snowstorm, she shouted, 'I am leaving Prince Hans in charge until I come back!' I believe that gives me a strong claim to rule."

"Indeed?" nodded the old Duke of Glauerhafen, who had been chosen to lead this meeting because they all knew he would never get the position (he was too lazy to rule his own duchy, never mind someone else's domain). "And why would the Princess have chosen you, Prince Hans?"

"Well..." Hans blushed slightly. "I had proposed marriage to her that afternoon. I think she was about to accept my offer."

"Indeed," the Duke nodded again. "Were there any witnesses to this statement of hers?"

"Yes!" the Duke of Weselton shouted as he stood. "I was about thirty feet away, trying to catch up with him, and I heard her say it quite clearly."

"Is there anyone else here with a stronger claim?" the old Duke asked. There was no one. It was decided that, due to Princess Anna's decision, Prince Hans would be given temporary authority to rule Arendelle until a member of the royal family returned.

"If you all don't mind," he began, "I need to confer with my trusted advisor. Then I will try to do something useful for this suffering kingdom." He and the Duke found a small office and closed the door behind them. The Duke seated himself at the King's writing desk, whose stool would make him taller, and Hans took a comfortable armchair nearby.

"Nicely done, boy," the Duke grinned. "I knew you had potential! We may be able to salvage this situation yet."

"Is there still a problem?" Hans wondered. "The royal family is gone, I'm legally in charge... what else do we need to do?"

"It's _never_ that easy, boy!" the Duke erupted, slamming his fist on the desk. "Legally, you're nothing but a pretender to the throne. The Queen has done a nice job of removing herself, as I suggested she might; but the moment your Princess comes back, everyone will want _her_ to be the sovereign, and _you'll_ go back to being Thirteenth of Thirteen! Our work here is just beginning."

"Will there be time to do something to help all those people?" Hans wondered. "They really are suffering out there."

"Yes, yes, of course," the Duke nodded. "In fact, that should be your first order of business. Definitely do something for the people. I, on the other hand, will publicly fuss and complain about the costs of your actions. The people will love you all the more when they can contrast your kindness against my small-minded greed."

"The old 'bad noble, good noble' game?" Hans grinned.

"Exactly," said the Duke. "You'll have the citizenry eating out of your hand within a day or two. Then it will be time for the hard part – bringing the royals back here so we can deal with them in a nice, neat, legal fashion."

"No one even knows where they are," Hans said thoughtfully. "Maybe it would look good if I rode out to find them."

The Duke considered that. "Yes, I suppose it would," he nodded reluctantly. "That means I'd have to ride out with you, and cross-country riding in winter has never been my favorite activity. Still, this could be the most ticklish part of our plan, and I can't trust you to handle it on your own."

Hans was beginning to get tired of being treated like an incompetent child. "What's it going to take before you accept me as an equal partner in this deal?" he demanded.

"I'll treat you as an equal when you've _earned_ it, boy!" the Duke shot back. "The very fact that you'll settle for the crown of Arendelle is proof that you aren't at my level yet. When this thing is done, you will be a small-time King, whereas I shall be an extremely wealthy Duke. Until you can see the difference between the throne of one kingdom and the wealth of many kingdoms, you will never be my equal."

"I assure you, I have my reasons," Hans said tightly.

"And _I_ assure _you,_ your reasons will count for _nothing_ when the gold is added up," the Duke replied, then resumed his mask of affability. He rose from his chair. "We can continue this cheerful discussion later. For now, it's time for you to start acting like the King you so desperately want to be. After all, your subjects are suffering out there."

Hans took immediate and vigorous action – opening the palace to people who had no warm place to go, and distributing blankets to anyone who needed them. The Duke was furious. "These blankets are trade goods, Prince! You're ruining their resale value!"

"I don't care about that, Duke – not while people are suffering!" The Duke was putting on an act, but not much of one; Hans was being completely honest. He was secretly beginning to wonder if he would ever measure up to his mentor's standard. The old Duke looked at people and saw labor, taxes, and revenue; Hans looked at them and saw men, women, and children. Maybe it wasn't his destiny to become a wealthy, powerful manipulator and king-maker like the Duke. Maybe becoming a small-time King was the best he should hope for.

Was there anything wrong with that?

**o**

They had food. They had shelter. Anna was warm enough. They had each other. The question was, what should they do with themselves? Anna summed up the situation best when she said, "I love being free, but it's kind of boring."

There was no work they had to do. There were no books to study, no lessons to memorize, no obligations of any kind to fulfill. There wasn't anything fun to do, either. In fact, they had nothing to do at all. How could they pass the time? Games of "I spy with my little eye" got tired really fast.

The best answer they found was in Elsa's power, and her sudden willingness to use it. She started with simple things, and moved up to greater projects.

She made rows of ice knight statues to guard the entrance, just like the suits of armor that Anna was forever colliding with at the foot of the grand staircase in the palace. She made life-sized sculptures of bears, and foxes, and eagles, and Viking ancestors, and anything else she could think of. She made fountains of ice, complete with columns and sprays of frozen water. She made reproductions of the paintings that hung on the walls of the palace, complete with icy frames. They were quite good, because she didn't need coordination or artistic talent; she just thought about what she wanted, and it appeared before her, exactly as she visualized it. If she wanted to change something, the snowflakes would fly for a few seconds, and the change would be there. When she got tired of something, it would vanish in a puff of ice crystals, and she'd make something else to take its place.

She made furniture for their palace. Now that she'd learned the art of compressing snow clouds, she could make cushions and pillows just as firm or soft as she wanted them. Couches, chairs, tables, footrests, cabinets with doors that swung on hinges... nothing was too hard for her. She even managed to make a working roll-top desk, not because they had any use for one, but just to see if she could do it. Every day, she would redecorate; the colors didn't change much, but the style, size, and placement did. If she wanted to challenge herself, she would make ice flowers to put in ice vases on top of the ice tables, or ice topiaries to stand in ice pots by the ice doors. Those projects actually took some effort and concentration on Elsa's part, because they were so fine and complex.

She made icy blades appear on her shoes and on Anna's boots, and they tried to turn the lower level of the ice palace into a skating rink. Neither of them knew what they were doing, and after many falls (and the inevitable collision between Anna and one of the icy suits of armor), they mutually decided to give this project another try some other day.

At night, Elsa would put on icy fireworks shows for her sister. Brilliant sprays, star patterns, spheres that suddenly imploded and then burst outward again... if Elsa could imagine it, she could make it happen in snow and ice. She was like a child at Christmas with a new toy. Anna had a hard time deciding which was better – the entertainment her big sister provided, or the joy in Elsa's eyes as she fully embraced the talent she had suppressed for so long.

But there was one firm condition. Anna could not stand next to her sister when any of this was going on. Elsa insisted that Anna stay behind her.

"This has nothing to do with 'I'm the Queen and you're not'," she explained. "I just _will not_ take a chance on hurting you! I'll create anything, I'll show you anything, I'll try anything you can imagine, as long as you're safely behind me. If you won't agree to that, then you can chip out your own ice sculptures with a rock. That's the deal; take it or leave it." Anna saw no benefit in digging in her heels, so she agreed.

Late one night, after an especially impressive light show, Anna asked, "Is there anything you _can't_ do?"

"Last night, I tried defying gravity," Elsa replied with a bit of a grin, "but it just pulled me down."

Their household had a third member, who came and went as he pleased. Olaf genuinely liked both of them; that was no surprise to either sister, who recognized him as a representation of their best childhood memories together. He was friendlier toward Anna, while his attitude toward Elsa was more one of awe. His endless chatter could get monotonous, but Anna couldn't exactly complain about that, and he made up for it with the many times he made them laugh.

He watched the ice-skating lessons with poorly-concealed mirth. Sliding across the ice was child's play to him. Why were they having such a hard time staying upright? Finally, he asked Anna, "What's the hardest part about skating?"

"The ice," Anna answered ruefully, rubbing the part of her that she'd just landed on. He loved that answer, and went around repeating it to himself for the rest of the day.

They sometimes had a fourth person keeping them company, but only from a distance. Kristoff, like them, had nothing he had to do, so he sometimes rode up the mountain with Sven, just to stare at Elsa's magnificent handiwork. He couldn't get enough of the sight.

One afternoon, the sisters stepped out onto their balcony and saw Kristoff on the next ridge, sitting in his sled, staring in their direction. Sven was using his antlers as back-scratchers and was joyously oblivious to anything else. Anna nudged Elsa and asked, "Do you think he's staring at the stairs or the palace?"

Elsa smiled. "Actually, I think he's staring at you."

Anna laughed and waved the idea aside. "Don't be silly! He knows I'm almost engaged to someone else. Besides... he's Kristoff! He wouldn't look twice at a girl unless she had antlers."

Elsa realized that it might be very, very funny if she gestured and made ice antlers appear on top of Anna's head. But that would mean aiming her power right at her, and... no. That was never going to happen again. The moment passed.


	14. Chapter 14

**Frozen Together** Chapter 14

After a few days of Hans' firm leadership, the worst of the crisis had passed. There were still many problems to solve, like where to house all the coronation guests who had planned to live in summer pavilions, or how to feed Arendelle's livestock when the grass was under five inches of snow. But no one was in danger of dying, and it was time for Prince Hans to try and find Arendelle's rightful rulers and bring them back to the palace.

He rode with the Duke of Weselton at his side, along with eight of the queen's guard and the Duke's two bodyguards. They had no idea where they should look, or how long it would take, so they took dry provisions and money to buy supplies. They went fully armed, so as to be prepared for anything.

"Just remember," the old Duke growled quietly as they set off. "We need your princess to legitimize your claim. Marrying her would be best, but even an engagement will be good. The queen, on the other hand... is expendable."

Hans suddenly held up his hand. "Halt! Men, stand at ease. The Duke and I need to discuss our tactics." The two of them rode a few yards away so the guards couldn't hear them.

"No one said anything about killing the Queen!" he burst out.

"Do you want the throne of Arendelle, or don't you?" the Duke demanded. "And if you want it, how do you plan to take it if the Queen is already there? Were you planning to sit in her lap?"

"She's discredited herself!" Hans protested. "There's no need to kill her. We can make her reverse this unnatural winter, and then have her deposed!"

"Hans, Hans, Hans, you naïve little boy," the Duke scolded him. "You're assuming far too many things. You're assuming that she's able to reverse the winter on command; you're assuming that she's willing to do so; and you're assuming that the people will still reject her after she fixes the weather for them. All she has to do is say, 'Oops, my bad; it was just a minor problem with the climate control; sorry about that,' and everything will return to normal, which is the _last_ thing we want!

"One of the rules of the grand game is that you leave nothing to chance. If we give that witch-queen any room to wiggle out of the hole she's dug for herself, she may find a way to do it. But if she is permanently out of the picture, the kingdom will have no choice but to crown Anna, and I hope you know how you could profit from that.

"Still, I understand your squeamishness. I remember the first time I took permanent action against someone; the first time is always hard. In this case, it would be better if you stood aside, looking horrified, while my men and I do what has to be done. You'll banish us from the kingdom afterward, of course; but your hands will be clean, your claim to the throne will still be in play, and our deal will be that much closer to fulfillment."

The Duke leaned closer. "If, on the other hand, you're thinking of trying to warn someone in advance, just remember – all the guards and their weapons will be behind you, and you wear no armor. It's too late to back out now." He wheeled his horse around and trotted back to where the guards waited. Hans followed, much more slowly.

_Queen Elsa isn't even a person to him,_ he thought. _She's just an obstacle in his path, to be stepped over or stepped on. He'd kill Anna just as quickly if she got in his way. Or me_.

Luck was with them that day. In the first village they visited, they asked if anyone had seen two young women in royal dress. No one had seen them, but several of the citizens commented on the big, bright, shiny thing that had suddenly appeared on the North Mountain a few days ago. They could see it reflecting the mid-morning light, even from down in the valley. They couldn't tell what it was, but it certainly deserved a good look. The royal hunting party began climbing the mountain.

There was only one way up that horses could take, so they went that way. They came out at the edge of a rocky spur. The space between them and the next spur was spanned by a beautiful, fragile-looking stairway made of solid ice. On the far side stood the most heavenly-looking building Hans had ever seen. On the near side, a solitary man and a reindeer stood by a sled, just staring at the ice palace. He turned, surprised, when he heard them approach.

"Out of the way! Queen's business!" the Duke shouted as the twelve horsemen trotted past him. He wasn't actually in their way, but he stepped aside anyway, and watched as they stopped and dismounted next to the ice stairway.

The only sounds they could hear were the breathing of their horses and the chill mountain wind.

Hans took charge. "We'll cross one at a time, and wait on the far side. If this bridge collapses under us, we won't lose more than one man. I'll go first." He hesitantly put his weight on the first step, then the next. He slowly went faster as he crossed, but he never felt fully safe until his feet were on solid ground.

"It's ice, so watch your footing, but I think it will hold us!" he shouted from the other side.

"I could have told them that," Kristoff said in his Sven-voice.

"Yeah, but nobody listens to a reindeer," he replied in his own voice. "Except me."

The entire party was eventually gathered in front of the icy castle. "We are here to find the royal family of Arendelle and bring them home," he reminded the guards. "If they do not come willingly, we may have to compel them, for the good of the kingdom, but they are _not_ to be harmed! Is that clear to all of you?" The royal guardsmen nodded firmly; the Duke kept his face passive; and Weselton's bodyguards glared at the Prince with barely-concealed irritation.

Hans climbed the steps and opened the door.

The inside of the palace was even more unbelievable than the outside. The floor was a perfectly flat sheet of ice. Two rows of suits of armor, sculpted in ice, stood by the doorway. Icy reproductions of famous paintings hung all along the walls. In the center of the room, a clear sculpture of a dragon reared its head up twelve feet off the ground. Two lacy stairways, much like the one they'd just crossed, curved upwards. Everything was lit with an unearthly blue light. The men entered silently, nervously, unsure of what to expect. They had no frame of reference to make sense of the things they were seeing. The place was uncannily quiet, which made them even more nervous.

They climbed the nearest stairway hesitantly, worried that this might be some kind of trap, until they emerged on the second floor. This floor was decorated like an enormous, exquisite snowflake; instead of sculptures, it was furnished with ice tables, chairs, and a couch. It looked surprisingly homey, considering it was made out of frozen water.

On one wall was a door that led to a balcony. Elsa and Anna stood by that door, watching them.

Their appearance, to Hans, was the biggest surprise of all. The Queen had transformed herself from a demure-looking twenty-one-year-old girl into a dazzling, almost sensual vision in blue and white. By contrast, Anna looked almost dumpy in her out-of-style coat and hand-knit bonnet. Neither of them fit the image of "royalty" that Hans expected queens and princesses to strive for.

Anna took one look at him and almost rushed to his arms. But the armed men behind him made her hesitate, and the presence of that Duke who had brought such misery to her sister... doubly so. It took all her strength to stay at Elsa's side, but she realized that was where she needed to be.

"Why are you here?" Elsa asked quietly.

Hans took a breath and tried to explain.

"For the first time, we're together, since you fled your native land.  
"We have made a long endeavor just to tell you you're not banned.  
"We all want you back; however, if you won't come on your own,  
"We will find a way that's clever to take you to your home."

Elsa held up her hand.

"Please go on back. It's not too late.  
"We'll use that palace for affairs of state.  
"We'll live here, Anna and me.  
"If someone needs me, they can come and see.  
"It's best to keep the kingdom safe from me."

The Duke took a long stride toward them; Anna stepped protectively between them, Hans stood beside his mentor, and they had a short, sharp exchange:

Hans: "Actually, they're not."  
Anna: "What do you mean, they're not?"  
Duke: "Your sister threw a royal fit!"  
Anna: "So what? Who cares a bit?"  
Duke: "Arendelle's in deep, deep, deep, deep –"

"...snow," Hans finished.

"What?" Elsa couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Your Majesty, when you fled your kingdom, you set off an unnatural winter all over Arendelle!" Hans knew he had to persuade her quickly, before the situation escalated and the Duke got his chance to strike her down. "People are freezing! There isn't enough food! You owe it to your people to come home and undo what you've done!"

The Queen looked at her hands, half-panicked. "I can't... I- I don't know how!"

Hans looked firm. "Nevertheless, Your Majesty, we must insist that you return to your throne and your people. They need you at this... desperate... time..." He broke off and glanced upwards. Snow was beginning to fall inside the palace. Anna quickly took her reassuring position behind Elsa; Hans tried to keep his focus on the royal pair; the Duke suddenly looked fearful; the Arendelle guards glanced around nervously; and the Duke's men quietly released the safety catches on their crossbows.

Then everyone was talking at once.

Hans: "For the first time in forever..."  
Elsa: "I cannot rule! Why can't you see?"  
Hans: "You can rule by your command."  
Anna: "Elsa, stay where it's warm beside me!"  
Hans: "You can fix this winter weather..."  
Duke: "The witch has brought a curse!"  
Hans: "Which I see you hadn't planned."  
Anna: "Stop it, Hans, you'll only make things worse!"  
Hans: "Unplanned, but you can make the sun shine bright!"  
Elsa: "Don't interfere! Please leave us here!"  
Hans: "Don't you dare just say, 'Whatever'."  
Anna: "We are fine! Don't come and get her!"  
Duke: "Will you let her live forever?"

...and suddenly Elsa screamed, "STAY BACK!" The soldiers had gotten way too close for comfort.

She took a long step backwards, forcing Anna to jump sideways to avoid being knocked over, and swept her hand in a wide arc in front of her. A visible wave of pure cold radiated out from her fingers. It was a short-ranged wave, meant to make the soldiers back off, and it succeeded. They all jumped back five feet or more. One guard had been holding his spear in front of himself; he suddenly found the spear covered in frost crystals, and it became too cold to hold. When he dropped it on the ice floor, it shattered.

But Anna had jumped to the side, not back as Elsa had assumed, and the Queen swung her hand a little further than she meant to. Anna took a full burst of cold that was never meant for her.

Elsa didn't notice at first; she was fixated on the armed men in front of her. It wasn't until the Duke hissed, "The witch has struck down her own sister!" that she glanced to her right. She saw Anna stagger back, struggle to stay on her feet, slowly fall to her knees...

...and Elsa knew, with a horror beyond words, that she had just made her own worst nightmare come true.

"Cut her down!" someone shouted. The Duke's men both fired at once. Elsa's response was more a reflex than a planned defense. She held out both her hands protectively. Two ice shields, much like the ones that lined the outside walls of the palace, appeared in front of her; each shield bounced one crossbow bolt away. Then she raised her hands together, and a six-inch-thick wall of opaque ice rose out of the floor to the ceiling, and swiftly stretched to both walls of the palace, crushing the ice furniture to powder as it spread. All the men were caught on the far side of the wall. They began hammering at it with their sword pommels, but it would take them at least an hour to make a hole big enough for a man to get through.

"Anna!" Elsa knelt in front of her sister and tried to lift her chin. Anna was visibly pale and was beginning to shiver. She was clearly in pain. The expression in her eyes... Elsa couldn't bear to look any more.

It was not anger, or fear, or resentment in Anna's eyes, but simple shocked astonishment that her precious sister could have done this to her.


	15. Chapter 15

**Frozen Together** Chapter 15

"Anna!" Elsa gasped.

Anna tried to get back on her feet. "I'm all right," she lied.

"Oh, this is bad," Elsa quavered. "This is worse than bad. I need to get you to a... no, a doctor can't help. You need... you need the trolls! They can help! That's where Father took you... the last time."

"Where?" Anna wondered.

Elsa looked even more stricken. "I don't know. Father knew, but... wait! He had a book with a map! We need to get back to the palace and find that book!"

There was one small problem – they couldn't get out of their ice palace. Their way was blocked by a solid wall of ice, with a dozen hostile soldiers and noblemen on the other side. The only other exit was the balcony door. Elsa helped Anna onto the balcony and looked down. They were far too high to jump.

"How can we get down without killing ourselves?" she asked herself out loud.

"Slide?" Anna asked.

Elsa could have hit herself – why didn't she think of that? She gestured, and a long icy chute leaped from the edge of the balcony, across the chasm, to the rocky spur on the other side. They climbed onto it, with Anna in front, and they made a fast transit across the chasm and landed in an undignified heap in the snow right in front of Kristoff.

"Out of the way!" Elsa exclaimed as she struggled to her feet. "Queen's business!"

"I hear that a lot, up on this uninhabited mountain," Kristoff commented. Then he saw how pale Anna looked. "What's wrong? Can I do anything to help?"

"Not unless you can find us some trolls in a hurry," Elsa snapped.

The mountain man's face lit up. "Actually, I can do that."

"You can?" Anna wondered.

"I was raised by the trolls," he explained as he hurriedly got Sven into his harness. "They adopted me when I was just a boy. I know exactly where they live. We can get you there in an hour or so."

"Anna, do you trust this mountain man?" Elsa demanded.

"Yes, he's a good man."

"All right." The sisters got into the back of the sled.

As Kristoff finished harnessing Sven, they heard a commotion from the other side of the chasm. The ice-palace doors flew open, and Olaf scampered out and slid down the banister of the ice stairway. "Cannonball!" he shouted, and thudded into a snowdrift. Behind him, twelve armed men burst out of the palace and made their cautious way down the stairs toward them.

Olaf pulled himself partially out of the snowbank, and promptly panicked. "I can't feel my legs! I can't feel my legs!" he screamed.

"Your legs are made out of _snow!_ Of _course _you can't feel them!" said Kristoff, distracted.

"Oh. Yeah. I knew that," the little snowman answered.

"Your Majesty, are those soldiers friends or enemies?" the mountain man went on.

"They're not friends," Elsa replied.

"They've got horses, and Sven has to pull a sled – we'll never outrun them!" Kristoff exclaimed.

"Olaf, can you hold them at bay while we make a getaway?" Anna chattered.

"I can try, but I'm kind of outnumbered," Olaf answered. "It would be nice if I had a little help."

"You've got it," Elsa decided. She gestured with both hands. The snow near them heaved upward and formed itself into a monstrous, unfriendly-looking snowman. It glared through its hollow eyes at the Prince, who was leading the charge, and who had slammed on his brakes when he saw what was waiting for him at the bottom of the steps. Slamming on your brakes doesn't work well when you're on ice.

"Stay away!" it bellowed at him. The soldiers' horses panicked and bolted for the tree line.

"Yeah, like he said!" echoed Olaf, who was keeping a safe distance.

"Sven, go!" Kristoff exclaimed with a flick of the reins, and the reindeer spun the sled around and took off. Kristoff knew exactly where he wanted to go. They heard the sounds of battle behind them, but there were too many trees in the way to see what was happening. They listened hard for the sound of horses overtaking them, but that dreaded sound never came.

After about fifteen minutes, something did over take them – Olaf. He was sliding on his belly and moving pretty quickly. "Hey, guys!" he called, sticking out his thumb. "Can I catch a ride?"

"Olaf, little friend, Anna is very, very cold," Elsa said sadly. "A hug from a snowman, even a warm hug, wouldn't be good for her right now."

"But a hug makes everything better!" he protested.

"Almost everything, but not this."

"I'm going to be okay," Anna said quietly. As Elsa watched, another strand of her sister's hair turned white. She looked away, trying to fight the tears. The snowflakes streaming out behind them were close to blizzard strength, and they weren't being kicked up by the sled.

About ten minutes later, the sled hit something hard, rocked up on one side, and nearly tipped over. When it fell back to the ground, they all heard something crack. "Whoa!" Kristoff shouted to Sven, and got out to inspect the damage.

"We must have hit a rock," he said sourly. "The runner is broken in three places. That's what I get for trying to save money with reconditioned parts!"

"What can we do?" Anna asked.

"We'll have to abandon it and walk," he said disgustedly. "I just paid it off, too. Luckily, we're pretty close to where we're going." It took almost an hour of walking, but they finally arrived.

"Here we are," Olaf said cheerily. "Everyone, welcome to the next stop on our itinerary... a field full of rocks." He did a double-take. "Hey! It's a field full of rocks!"

Suddenly, the rocks began rolling toward them from all directions. Just before they collided with anyone, they suddenly unfolded themselves into small, stout, gray-skinned people. "Kristoff!" they shouted. "Kristoff is back!"

"Trolls?" Elsa asked her sister. She hadn't seen trolls since that awful day...

"I guess so," Anna replied. She had no recollection of them at all.

One of the trolls suddenly exclaimed, "Kristoff brought a pretty girl!"

"He brought _two_ pretty girls!" another one replied.

A third approached the mountain man. "Two at once? You're kind of breaking the rules, Kristoff, but we can't fault your enthusiasm."

"Or your good taste," added a fourth.

"You can settle down with only one, though," the first one said.

"Do you need us to help you make up your mind?" a fifth chimed in.

"No, no! I know you're love experts, but that's not why we're here!" he shouted, but the group had already decided how they would handle this unexpected meeting. They were going to help Kristoff choose which girl would be best for him.

"Now, do you think you might be fond  
"Of the one who's tall and blonde?  
"She's a beauty and we're sure she's very nice.  
"Picking her is not a blunder,  
"Though we really have to wonder  
"If she understands the message sent by dressing up in ice.

"We're here to help you to pick your lover.  
"We are here to inform  
"That the one you have pick-éd, her voice may be wicked,  
"But we're pretty sure she can keep you warm!

"We're here to help you to pick your lover.  
"We'll do it right, Kristoff!  
"The way to help you pick your love  
"Is to pair these lovers off!"

"No! Stop it!" Kristoff shouted. "This is the _Queen_ you're talking about!"

"Oh!" That stopped the trolls' song. They blinked twice at him in unison, held a quick huddle, then came out singing some more.

"Or would you rather stay, instead,  
"With the one whose hair is red?  
"She's a cutie, though she has no fashion sense."

("That's _not_ my fault!" she protested.)

"She might seem a little nervous,  
"But – may all the saints preserve us! –  
"Is she hoping that a life of love will soon commence?

"We're here to help you to pick your lover.  
"You need to conquer your fear.  
"Her agitation's an indication  
"The implications of love are near!

"We're here to help you to pick your lover.  
"We are very aware,  
"The way to help you pick your love  
"Is to make you two a pair!"

"NO!" Kristoff begged them. "She's almost engaged to someone else, and she's upset because she might be dying!"

That brought real silence. Anna suddenly looked even paler. "I might?" she asked nervously. Elsa nodded, unable to look her in the eye.

"Get the Grand Pabbie!" The crowd of trolls parted as a large rock rolled right up to Anna, stopped, and unrolled into the trolls' chief.

He glanced at Elsa sadly. "I had feared we might meet again." He turned to Anna and ran his hands up and down in the air in front of her. His solemn air became even more grave. After a few seconds, he shook his head. "There is nothing I can do."

"Nothing?" Kristoff and Elsa echoed.

"The head, the body, even the arms and legs... all can be persuaded to become warm again," the Grand Pabbie explained. "But only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart."

A gentle snowfall was dusting them all. The chief turned to Elsa, who was standing apart, tears streaming down her face. "Your Majesty, what I said to you before, I must say again – fear is your enemy. But guilt will be fear's greatest ally against you. If you let yourself be imprisoned by your dark feelings, you will never master your power; _it_ will master _you_. Do you understand this?" She nodded miserably.

"Wait a second," Kristoff burst out. "If all she needs is an act of true love to heal her... then what about that prince of hers? Could he kiss her or something?"

"Could it be that easy?" Elsa wondered. "Anna, are you _sure_ it's true love with you and him?"

"It has to be," she nodded weakly. Suddenly she shivered, and more of her hair went white.

"We've got to get her back to Arendelle, fast!" Elsa exclaimed.

"Sven can carry both of us," Kristoff suggested.

"Too slow! No offense, Sven, but we've got to move like we've never moved before!" The queen gestured, and brought a toboggan of pure ice into being. She leaped into the front position, looked back, and ordered, "Get on!" Kristoff sat behind her. Anna sat between them at first, but soon lay back against Kristoff, shivering uncontrollably. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her in place and trying to help her stay warm.

As soon as they were seated, Elsa turned the snow in front of them into a channel of ice. Another gesture, and the toboggan was accelerating fast. She kept extending the ice channel in front of them, and they were soon moving downhill at a frightening pace. Sven tried to keep up, but quickly fell behind. Olaf was sliding on his belly in the channel behind them, giggling as though he was taking the greatest ride of his life, apparently unaware that this might be the last ride of Anna's life.

Elsa spared a moment to glance behind her at Anna and Kristoff. The scene seemed familiar somehow. Where had she seen this before?

She remembered. It was the night her father and mother took both of them on horseback to see the trolls the first time. Her mother had clung to Anna in much the same way. They didn't look a bit alike, of course. But their tender, protective, worried expressions were almost identical.

_Faster,_ Elsa thought.


	16. Chapter 16

**Frozen Together** Chapter 16

The trees were whipping past them at an unbelievable rate. Kristoff glanced down at Anna; she looked noticeably paler than she had at the start of the ride. He pulled his hat off and set it on her head instead.

"What if the Prince isn't in Arendelle?" he suddenly asked. "The last time we saw him, he was at your ice castle."

"He'll have to go back there eventually," Elsa said without looking back. "Even if he isn't there, she can stay warm in the palace. That will buy her some time." She didn't dare take her eyes off the path before them, which she was transforming into a high-speed ice channel on the fly. She was guiding them around rocks, between trees, and through dips and rises that could send them flying in a moment if her attention wavered.

"Yee-hah!" shouted Olaf from just behind them. "Am I riding the luge or the skeleton? It must be the luge, because I don't have a skeleton." Further back in the ice channel, Sven had given up running to keep up with them, and was sliding on his belly with his four legs splayed in all directions. It looked like he was starting to enjoy it.

They burst out of the trees, and Arendelle came into view. Elsa was stunned at the sight. When she had left, just a few days ago, it was early June. Now it looked like January. "What have I done?" she whispered.

"You can fix it," Anna murmured. "I know you can." Elsa shook her head.

They zoomed past several people who were trying to dig snow away from their houses, or knock icicles off their eaves. At least one of them muttered, "The Bringer of Winter is back." They slid across the frozen fjord, Elsa made a small ramp to guide them back onto land, and they skidded to a halt just in front of the palace gates.

"Open, in the name of the Queen!" Elsa shouted. Kristoff helped Anna to her feet as the doors opened.

At the head of the guards at the door stood Prince Hans, who had apparently just returned from the mountain. He was speechless for a moment. Finally, he blurted out, "Your Majesty," then rushed past her. "Anna! What's happened to you?"

Elsa caught him by the shoulder. "Please, you've got to get her warm and keep her warm! Her life depends on it!" In his ear, she whispered, "You've _got_ to show true love to her!" The prince guided Anna out of Kristoff's arms and led her inside, where two of the servants took her toward the nearest room with a fireplace. Then he stopped.

"Are you coming, too, Your Majesty?"

"No," she said sadly. "This isn't my place. I'm not sure it ever was." She motioned for Kristoff to leave. Sven had just caught up with him, so he took one last look as Anna disappeared around a corner; then they turned and left together. He looked a lot sadder than she had expected. Maybe "devastated" would be a better word.

"Queen Elsa... don't go back to your ice palace." Hans was filled with conflicting emotions and interests. He knew he did not want to see Elsa dead, and if she went back to her home of ice, she would probably meet the Duke on the way, and the Duke would kill her without a moment's thought. He also didn't want her to get away into the wilderness again, because he could never take the throne of Arendelle if she wasn't dealt with in some way. Anna was obviously very attached to her sister, so if anything bad happened to Elsa, and he was somehow connected to it, his hopes of courting and marrying the princess would be over. He wanted this strange winter to end, because he was beginning to grow fond of this kingdom and its people, and Elsa was the only one who could stop it, but she had to do it willingly. If he'd held the runaway Queen in the palm of his hand and then let her get away again, the Duke would be furious; he might end their deal and leave him with nothing, or even treat him like just another obstacle. Finally, Elsa would probably have to stand before the royal conclave because she'd assaulted her sister; if he let her go, he might be considered her accomplice.

"Why not?" she asked.

"When I left the Duke to return to Arendelle, he was ordering the guards to cut down trees, drag them into your palace, and set them on fire. 'Melt this bewitched place' – those were his words. You probably don't even _have_ an ice palace anymore."

Elsa shook her head sadly. Was she destined to lose everyone and everything that had ever brought her a shred of happiness?

"Your Majesty... can you do something about this strange winter?" he asked urgently.

"I really don't know how," she sighed, and looked at her hands. "I never meant to do this... I don't know how it happened, and I don't know how to undo it." Again she moved as if to leave.

"There is one more thing, Your Majesty. I'm sorry... but you attacked your sister and harmed her, in front of witnesses. You'll have to stand before the assembled nobility to answer for that." Her eyes went wide with fear. "I'm sure you can convince them it was an accident. As long as no permanent harm befalls her, the trial will be a mere formality, and you'll be free to go."

For most of her life, she'd chosen to live as a prisoner in her room, hating every moment of it. The idea of being imprisoned against her will... that was unimaginable. "No," she gasped. "I can't let that happen." She turned away firmly.

"I'm so sorry, Your Highness," he said. He quietly drew his dagger and struck her in the back of the head with the pommel. She fell senseless to the ground in a blonde-and-blue heap. He fought the urge to throw up; he felt like he'd just crushed a beautiful flower under his boot. "You'll be safer under confinement," he whispered. "The Duke will kill you on sight if he finds you free." He was mostly trying to convince himself, and it wasn't working.

He turned to the shocked guards. "Confine the Queen to her room, with guards at the door," he ordered. "She must stand trial for attacking Princess Anna. Be certain that she cannot use her hands for anything."

They nodded and carried her away. As they left, Kai, the butler, came running up to him. "Prince Hans," he exclaimed, "the Princess is calling for you!"

What had Elsa said to him? "You've _got_ to show true love to her!"

He watched the guards disappear around the corner with Elsa, and decided that he had reached the point where he would have to break with the Duke and face the consequences, whatever they might be. The price of this game had just gone higher than he was willing to pay.

The butler led him to the room where Anna lay on a couch by the fire, covered in blankets, shivering. Her hair had many white streaks, and her skin was turning white as well. He knelt beside her as Kai left and closed the door.

"Anna? What's happening to you?"

"I'm kind of freezing from the inside out," she said slowly.

He held her hand; it felt like ice. "Is there anything I can do? Is there anything anyone can do?"

"You're the only one who can do anything," she whispered. "The chief of the trolls said only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart."

"True love's kiss?" he wondered. She closed her eyes expectantly. He slowly bent over towards her...

...and then shook his head in frustration. "Oh, Anna! If only there was _someone_ out there who truly loved you!"

Her eyes snapped open. "What? What do you mean?"

He looked into her eyes intently. "You're wonderful, Anna! You're pretty, you're smart, you're brave, you're loyal... you're everything I long for in a girl! The time we spent together before the coronation might have been the happiest day of my life. I'm drawn to you like I've never been drawn to anyone before. But love? True love? I'm just not there yet. If true love is what you need... I can't save you."

"No," she gasped. "But I thought you... we..."

"Anna," he said sadly, "it's time I told you the truth. When I came to Arendelle, my plan was to woo and marry either you or your sister so I could take the throne. That was all I wanted."

Her eyes went wide, but he went on. "I knew I could be a good king if I could just get the chance! But as the youngest of thirteen brothers, the Southern Isles would never be mine. When the Duke offered me his help in getting this throne in exchange for a trade deal, I leaped at the chance. That turned out to be the worst decision I've ever made. I didn't plan on you being so nice, and I didn't realize what a dirty game the Duke was playing. I'm caught in his web of intrigue now, and breaking out of it may kill me.

"Now you're in the biggest trouble of your life, and it's partly my fault. I can't offer you true love, but I can tell you this: beware of the Duke! He means you no good, and... I really fear for your sister."

"Elsa!" Anna burst out. She tried to leap out of the couch, but fell to the floor instead. "Where is she?"

"She's under house arrest for attacking you," he said apologetically as he helped her back onto the couch.

"But that was an accident!" she exclaimed.

"If you tell that to the conclave, I'm sure that's all they'll need to hear," he answered. "But she had to be confined. There was no other way."

They heard a crackling sound from above them. The ceiling was becoming encrusted with ice. "That's Elsa. She's really under stress," Anna realized. "We have to get her out of there!" She struggled to her feet.

He gently restrained her. "Anna, if you don't stay close to this fire, you could die."

She looked him in the eye. "If I can't find true love soon, that's going to happen anyway. Hans, you don't understand how much she needs me!" Then she looked away. "You don't understand how much _I_ need _her!_ You never had a close relationship with any of your brothers; you don't know what it's like. I know she's in trouble, and I _have_ to go to her!" She tried to push his hands away, but there was no strength left in her.

He thought for a moment about what she'd said, and he made his decision. "Anna, if you _promise_ me you'll stay by this fire, I'll go set her free. But she can't come to you; she has to leave Arendelle, or the Duke will kill her. You can go after her once you've warmed up a little. Deal?"

She nodded feebly and fell back onto the couch. He left the room in haste. The Duke would never forgive him for what he was about to do. He might be signing his own death warrant. But he would die with clean hands. Somehow, that was important.


	17. Chapter 17

**Frozen Together** Chapter 17

Hans meant to go straight to Elsa's room and free her. But he'd barely gotten out of the library where he'd left Anna when he heard heavy footsteps from near the front door. The Duke and his men had returned! He tried to avoid them, but the Duke saw him and called him over.

"What's the news, boy?" he demanded.

Hans decided not to mention Elsa right away. "Princess Anna has returned to the palace," he said, then added, "She isn't doing well."

"Then you'd better marry her quickly, or at least get a promise of engagement out of her, before she's gone and you miss your chance. Any sign of the Queen?" _This Duke didn't care if Anna lived or died!_

"I think Queen Elsa is nearby, but I don't know exactly where," he replied.

"The weather is getting worse outside, so I'm sure you're right about her being nearby," the Duke said thoughtfully. "She's probably trying to get to her sister. They seem inseparable. Perhaps we should do them both a favor, and bury them in a common grave when the time comes."

"I prefer not to bury my princesses until they're actually dead," Hans retorted angrily. "You will excuse me, please." He turned on his heel and strode away. If he'd had any doubts about his new course of action, the Duke had dispelled them.

**o**

Kristoff was walking slowly across the frozen fjord, occasionally kicking at small snowdrifts or bits of windblown debris. Sven walked next to him, sensing his friend's melancholy mood and abstaining from his usual goofiness.

When this adventure started, just a few days ago, he'd had nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to see, and it didn't seem so bad. Now, he was back to having nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to see, and he felt like his world had ended.

As he reached the shoreline, he noticed a familiar shape waiting for him. "Hi, Olaf," he said listlessly.

"Hey, what's with the long face?" the snowman wondered. "I've got a long nose, but it doesn't make me look half as sad as you are."

The mountain man shook his head. "I don't think you'd understand."

"Oh, try me!" Olaf begged. "I'm remarkably deep, for a person with snow for brains."

"Well... were you ever making your way through life, minding your own business, and then suddenly, someone steps into your life and makes everything better, just by being there?"

"Yes," Olaf sighed. "That would be Anna."

"Yeah," Kristoff agreed sadly. "That would be Anna."

"Do you like her as much as I do?" Olaf wondered.

"Probably more," the big man said quietly. Sven gave him a nudge with his muzzle and looked concerned.

"But if you like her more than I do, that could only mean... true love!" The snowman's head and two body parts began bouncing up and down on each other, trying to get his head up to eye level with Kristoff. "But that means _you_ could have kissed her and made her better! Why didn't you?"

"For one thing, she's already got a prince who can kiss her and make her better, and she really likes him," Kristoff said sadly. "For another thing, she's a princess of Arendelle, and I'm just a pungent, unemployed ice man. She wouldn't _want_ a kiss from a guy like me, no matter what the trolls say!"

"I thought you said they were love experts!" the little snowman exclaimed. "So how come you don't believe them?"

"Olaf, I know what I am. I also know what I'm not. I'm _not_ a fit companion for a princess!"

The snowman planted his stick-hands on what passed for his hips. "I don't buy that for a minute, big guy! I saw how you were holding her in that ice sled, and the way she leaned back against you. I think she'd kiss you if you asked her nicely. In fact, I know she would. And, seeing how _you_ won't ask her, and seeing how I've got nothing better to do, I'm going to go find her and ask her _for_ you!"

"No! Olaf, please don't do that!" Kristoff begged him.

"Oh? Can you give me one good reason why not?"

"Well... that's a really bad blizzard that's blowing over the town," Kristoff noticed. "I don't think you want to walk into the middle of that."

"Blizzard, shmizzard! To me, it's all snow. Listen, Rice Kristoff, maybe you think you're fooling everybody, acting like you don't care. But _somebody_ has to bring you two together, and if it has to be a snowman, then I shall do my duty!" Olaf saluted bravely, turned, and belly-slid across the ice, straight into the storm.

After a few seconds, Kristoff turned resignedly. "That little fellow is going to get himself killed," he said to Sven. They braced themselves against the wind and headed into the storm, trying to figure out which way the little snowman had gone.

**o**

Elsa awoke with a pounding headache. She was back in her room. Her hands were fastened into riveted-iron manacles that looked like something out of a torture chamber. She had no idea how any of these things had happened to her.

She looked out her window on the white desolation that she had somehow brought upon her kingdom. "What have I done?" she asked softly, as a tear rolled down her cheek. Snow began falling all around her. Part of the floor froze over.

After a few silent minutes, the lock in her door clicked, and the door swung open. Hans stepped inside and quickly closed the door behind him. She stared at him fearfully, unsure of his intentions.

"Your Highness, I'm here to set you free." If she realized he was the one who had imprisoned her in the first place, she gave no sign. He held out a small key. Reluctantly, she stepped over to him and held out her hands. He swiftly removed the iron manacles and let them fall to the floor with a clatter. She flexed her fingers and breathed a huge sigh of relief; the snow around them began to lessen in intensity.

"Is there another way out of the palace besides the main gate?" he asked worriedly. "You have to get out before anyone sees you."

"Yes, the hall outside leads to the back stairs as well as the main staircase," she nodded. "Then I can take the back door into the palace gardens. But why am I being treated like a prisoner in my own palace?"

Hans weighed whether he should tell her everything, and decided against it. "There isn't time to explain it all," he told her. "All I can say is, beware of the Duke of Weselton! He's playing a political game with you as a pawn, he's playing for keeps, and he has no regard for your crown or your family line."

"Family... where's Anna? Is she all right now?"

He shook his head sadly. "It wasn't true love. Not for me. Not yet."

The snow suddenly picked up in volume; the wind began to blow. "Then she won't... No! I have to see her!" She rushed for the door.

"No, Your Highness! You've got to get out of here, _now!_ If the Duke kills you, you'll be of no help to Anna!" He meant to take her by the shoulders and guide her in the right direction, but the closer he got to her, the worse the snowfall became. He gave up trying to reach her. "Queen Elsa, please go! And hurry!"

She stumbled out of the room, past the guards whom the Prince had ordered to stand aside, and made her way down the hall to the back staircase. Whirling snow followed her; she left frosty footprints in the rug. When she stepped outside, her emotional turmoil burst out of control. A hideous storm cloud formed across the entire town, with high winds, thick snow, and biting hail. Visibility dropped to a few feet. The few citizens of Arendelle who were still outside quickly hid indoors. No one would brave a storm like that except a madman... or a despairing queen.

**o**

From her couch, Anna saw and heard the storm, and knew its source. When Hans returned a few minutes later, she forced herself to stand. "Hans, Elsa is suffering, and I'm the only one who can calm her down! You have _got_ to take me to her, or this storm is only going to get worse!"

"Anna... if you go out there, you'll die from the cold."

"If I don't go out there, _she_ could die! She needs me! Please, Hans! If you have any regard for me at all, help me to help her!" She'd pushed a button in him that he could not ignore.

He pulled an antique quilt off the wall, wrapped it around her shoulders, and desperately hoped that the Duke was busy trying to get warm, rather than watching the front gate. It was painful to watch Anna try and walk. He offered her his arm; she leaned on him gratefully.

They got as far as the front door before the Duke's bodyguards stepped out to block their way. "Well, well!" came the voice of the Duke from behind them. "Are the lovebirds going for a little walk in a howling snowstorm? How romantic!"

Before they could answer, he gestured to his guards. "Open the doors! Princess Anna, I think you should go on without the Prince. You may not have much time. And I need to speak to Hans privately." She glanced up at Hans; he nodded reluctantly. She made her way painfully out the door, and was quickly lost to sight in the swirling snowfall.

The instant the doors banged shut again, Hans felt a sharp, searing pain in the back of his leg. He fell to the floor, reached down, and felt something warm and wet on his hand. The Duke was calmly cleaning his dagger on a red handkerchief. "You won't die from that, Prince, unless you insist on running around on it. But it will make you lie still, and it will keep you from making an even bigger mess for me to clean up. The guards told me how you let the Queen escape. I _told_ you it was too late for second thoughts, and I meant every _word_ of it, boy.

"Whether you got your engagement from the Princess or not, no longer matters. You've reigned in the Queen's place for days, and everyone thinks you're wonderful. That means this storm was perfectly timed – it will kill one of them and hide the evidence of how we killed the other one. Once both the royals are gone, you'll be the only candidate for the crown. I've invested too much in this plan to let it fail now. I am _going_ to put you on the throne of Arendelle, boy, whether you still want it or not!

"Now go lie down before you bleed on the royal carpet." Hans stood painfully and limped away. The Duke made sure he was out of earshot before he spoke again.

"Let's go, men. We need to save this kingdom from its out-of-control queen, and put it in the hands of someone _we_ can control." He gestured, and his bodyguards opened the doors again, allowing blasts of cold air and flurries of snow to be blown inside. He smiled grimly "Ahh! What a _beautiful_ day for a regicide!"


	18. Chapter 18

**Frozen Together** Chapter 18

Five different people floundered through the storm, making their way across the ice of the fjord, for wildly diverging reasons. Olaf meant to get back to the palace, find Anna, and lead her to Kristoff so their kiss of true love could save her life. Kristoff hoped to save Olaf from the storm, and if he happened to bump into Anna somehow... he'd just see what happened. Anna's goal was to find Elsa and comfort her so this horrible storm would cease. The Duke's goal was the exact opposite – he meant to kill Elsa, in order to strengthen Hans' claim on the throne. He counted on the storm itself to finish off Anna, but if he had to end her life as well, he wouldn't hesitate. And Elsa, who had brought this storm into being in the first place, simply wanted to get away from all of them before she inadvertently hurt someone. Prince Hans would have been a sixth person, and he would have been trying to protect both Elsa and Anna against the Duke somehow; but he was lying on the same couch where Anna had shivered a few minutes ago, while a visiting countess with some nurse's training attended to the knife wound in his leg.

The first encounter was between Olaf and the Duke, and it wasn't friendly. One of the bodyguards saw movement in the storm and reflexively shot at it. His crossbow bolt passed right through Olaf's midsection. The snowman looked at himself and smiled. "Hey, you just gave me a belly button! I always wanted one of those! Sorry, I can't stay to chat – gotta go." He disappeared into the blizzard before anyone else could say anything.

The Duke didn't dare get too angry at his men; they were a lot bigger than him. But he had to maintain control of this scenario at all costs. "What if that had been some child lost in the storm?" he hissed. "From now on, you shoot _only_ if you can identify the Queen, or if I tell you to! Got that?" They nodded grimly and continued their search.

Because he was made of snow, Olaf was the least inconvenienced by the storm, but he couldn't see any better in the whirling snowflakes than anyone else. He had no magical ability to find his way, or to guide himself toward his goal. It was sheer luck that he kept bumping into people. The next one he encountered was Elsa.

The queen had no idea anyone else was out on the ice, so when she saw motion, she went toward it, if only to warn them to get inside before this storm froze them to death. She recognized Olaf and realized he ran no risk of freezing. "Olaf? What are you doing out here?"

"I've got to find Anna!" he explained. "I have to bring her back to Kristoff so he can kiss her and make her all better!"

"Kristoff? Why him?"

"Elsa, don't you remember how the two of them rode together on that bobsled you made? Isn't that pretty close to true love?"

Elsa _did_ remember. If the snowman was right, then maybe someone could save Anna after all! "I'll help you, Olaf! Do you know –" She stopped when she saw the crossbow hole in his midsection, complete with three little slashes where the quills on the bolt had gone through him. "Where did you _get_ that?"

"That's from one of the Duke's men. He even gave me an 'innie!' Do you like it? I like it."

Elsa felt a chill. Hans had warned her about the Duke, his men had already fired at her once, and here was proof that those guards were somewhere nearby, and they were shooting on sight. She doubted that they were hunting snowmen. She had to get away, _far_ away from here, before they caught up with her!

But Anna...

"I'll help you," she said again. "Where's Kristoff?"

"He was somewhere on the far shore, the last time I saw him. You know, it would be easier for us to find them if we could see better. Can you do something about this storm?"

She paused and tried to focus her power. All she could think about was Anna, slowly freezing to death, and herself, being hunted by two professional soldiers with crossbows. The storm got worse.

"Okay, never mind on being the weather girl," Olaf said. "I'll find Anna somehow!" He scampered off into the worst of the storm. Elsa tried to guess where the far shore might be, and pressed onward through the whirling snowflakes toward Kristoff (she hoped). She was fighting for Anna now.

A few minutes later, one of the Duke's men glared into the flying snow. "I think I saw the Queen, just ahead!" he exclaimed.

"Did you see anything?" the Duke asked his other guard.

"I saw something move," he said noncommittally.

"Very well," said the Duke. "I'm staying behind this ship's hull, so you won't shoot me in the confusion. Move up and see who's there! If it's Princess Anna, bring her to me. If it's the Bringer of Winter... you know what to do." They nodded in grim anticipation. They lived for moments like this.

Elsa's first warning that she was under attack was when a crossbow bolt screamed through the air from behind her, missing her head by barely six inches. She spun and saw two big dark silhouettes in the snow, far too close for comfort. "No! Please!" she begged them. She felt desperately frail and weak against them, power or no power.

Their answer was another shot. She didn't have time for a conscious reaction; she just lifted her hands in a reflex to protect herself, and a wall of ice rose from the fjord to intercept the bolt and hold it fast. It stopped less than an inch from her face.

"I don't want to hurt anyone!" she pleaded. "Stay away!" The first soldier had reloaded his crossbow and was outflanking her to the left, keeping her from running. It was only the thick snow in his eyes that kept him from shooting immediately, and that snow was suddenly even thicker than before. The wind rose to nearly a full gale. The second soldier got his weapon reloaded and stepped to his right, catching the Queen in a crossfire.

He never got to take his shot. Elsa had paused to prepare her defenses, and now she lashed back. A volley of knife-sharp icicles struck the edges of the second soldier's uniform and pinned him to the side of the ship, unharmed but unable to move. On the other side of that ship, the Duke heard the multiple thumps of weapons striking wood, and wondered what was going on.

Elsa hoped the first guard would take the hint and run away, but he did no such thing. He shot at her again. She gestured, and a wedge of ice suddenly rose up in front of her. The bolt hit the wedge and ricocheted away. Her eyes narrowed, and she gave herself over to an emotion that had never mastered her before: rage.

A jagged ice wall rose next to the soldier, then somehow slid sideways, hitting him and almost knocking him over. Then another wall rose and hit him on the other side. When he still tried to reload his crossbow, she fired a blast of cold directly at him. It instantly encased the weapon in ice. Undeterred, he dropped it and drew a short sword from under his jacket. She gestured angrily, and a thick wall of ice rose up straight in front of him. When he tried to go around it, three more walls rose up and joined the first one, trapping the man in an icy prison cell barely five feet square and eleven feet high. It was open at the top, so he tried to climb out. Ice is slippery. He could not escape.

Elsa remained tensely on guard for several more seconds, hands raised, looking all around to see if any more soldiers were going to appear with weapons at the ready. At last she let out the deep breath she'd been holding. Her tormentors had been immobilized. She had fought two armed, trained killers, and she had won. The fury of the storm subsided, very slightly.

She turned and stumbled through the flying snow, angry because the fight had made her waste precious time. She had to find Kristoff. She had to help Anna.

Meanwhile, Olaf's incredible luck at finding people in the middle of a blizzard continued. This time, it was Anna he found. For a moment, he was almost sorry he'd found her.

Her hair had gone completely white. Pale ice-like marks covered her face and hands. She was shivering uncontrollably, and every limping step caused her pain. It was obvious that she didn't have much time left.

"Anna?" he gasped.

"Olaf," she said, and tried to smile. "Have you seen Elsa?"

"Yes, she's fine," Olaf answered, "but you don't look so good. I need to take you to Kristoff!"

"No... no, I need to get to Elsa!" she protested. "She needs me! Can't you see this storm? This is because she's scared of something! I can help her!" She broke off; her teeth were chattering. "I need to find my sister!" she forced herself to say.

"Anna, if you freeze, you can't help her," Olaf said sadly, then brightened. "But after Kristoff gives you the kiss of true love, then you can help Elsa any way you want!"

"Kristoff?" Anna couldn't have heard that right. "True love? He doesn't love me... does he?"

"Don't you remember how he held you during that toboggan ride? Don't you remember how he used to stare at you on the ice-palace balcony? Anna, even he won't admit it, but he loves you!"

Anna tried hard to think. "But how can it be true love? He doesn't give me goose bumps, or say all the right things, or make me feel funny when I think about him!"

"Oh, Anna, you really _don't_ know much about true love, do you?" Olaf said kindly. "Sometimes those things happen when you're in love, but they aren't what love is all about! True love is putting someone else's needs above your own. Like Kristoff did when he helped bring you to the palace, and then left you with the Prince, because he thought that's who you needed the most."

The realization of what he was saying hit her between the eyes. "Kristoff... loves me?"

"Yes, and _you_ need an act of true love, so _I_ need to take you to him, _now!_ Come on!" He took off across the ice, forgetting that Anna was moving much more slowly than usual. She quickly lost sight of him in the flying snow. She tried to follow where he'd led, which quickly became a matter of guesswork. It felt like every step was slower and more painful than the last.

Now Olaf's string of luck ended. He passed within forty feet of both Elsa and Kristoff, but saw neither of them in the storm, and kept on going. Elsa also missed Kristoff in the snow. But the Duke... he found Elsa. He found his men first, and was unable to do anything for them. After promising to send some guards to free them, he struck out on his own, and soon found the Queen's faint footprints in the windblown snow. He grinned. It would have been more convenient if his men had done the job, but sometimes these things were more satisfying when you attended to them yourself.

"Queen Elsa!" he shouted. "Stop running! You cannot escape this!"

She turned on him, anger flashing in her eyes. "Stay back, Duke! I know what you are and what you want! You won't take me by surprise again."

He spread his empty hands. "You don't need to be afraid of me, Your Highness. I have no special powers to threaten you with... unlike _you,_ you unnatural freak!"

"Everything you ever told me before was a lie, and I'm not listening now," she snapped. She turned away.

"But what about Anna?" he demanded.

She faced him again. "What about her?"

He grinned inwardly. He'd found her weakness. "She's wandering around in this storm, you know. I watched her leave the palace. I don't know why she went out in the storm alone... but whatever she's looking for, she will never find it. She's dying, Elsa. She is freezing from the inside out. And why is she freezing? For the same reason this storm is blowing. Because of YOU! If _your_ freezing hasn't killed her yet, then _your_ storm will! She's almost certainly dead, thanks to _you!_"

"No," she whimpered, and turned away. But she had no argument against his accusations. "Anna..." she cried and fell to her knees, then crumpled to the ice in a sobbing heap.

He smiled coldly. It was _so_ much fun to break them first.

When Elsa fell to the ground, it was as though some of her power became disconnected. With an audible rushing sound, the fierce storm suddenly stopped, just like that. The wind died away to nothing, the flying snowflakes hovered in mid-air, and visibility suddenly extended from a few feet to a hundred yards or more. It was as though Nature had brought all the actors and actresses together on the stage, and had now raised the curtain for the final act of the drama.

Anna was as surprised as anyone when the storm ended. Far out in front of her, she could see a dim silhouette. It was Kristoff. "Anna!" he shouted, and ran toward her at full speed, slipping and falling on the ice several times. She haltingly made her way toward him, knowing that he and his kiss meant life to her.

Then she saw motion to her left. It was the Duke, who was stalking toward a quivering light-blue mass on the ice. He drew a dagger. _Elsa..._

Anna faced the cruelest dilemma anyone had ever known. She could try to get to Kristoff in time for him to save her life, knowing that Elsa would die as a result. Or she could try to save her sister, knowing that it would probably mean her own death, but without knowing if she would succeed. She had only moments to decide.

She glanced once more toward Kristoff, who was just a few seconds away from her. She chose. With a whimper, she turned away from him, and from life.

The Duke never expected any interference. He took his time, raised his dagger, and brought it down in a full overhand swing. A simple thrust in the back would have done the job, but this project had become much more difficult than he'd planned, and now that it was almost done, he really wanted to enjoy it.

Then someone threw herself between him and his victim with hand upraised, screaming, "NO!" As his arm came down, she suddenly transformed into solid ice where she stood. His dagger hit her on the hand, and to his amazement, the blade shattered.

Elsa heard Anna's final cry, looked over her shoulder in surprise... and saw the whole thing. She knew what the Duke had intended, and she knew what Anna had done. She watched, wide-eyed and terrified, as the Duke stumbled back and fell, and as a final puff of breath escaped her sister's motionless lips.

Elsa's nightmare had reached its inescapable conclusion. Anna was dead.

She forced herself to stand, and staggered over to where her sister stood motionless. But she couldn't give herself over to grief – not yet. The Duke was lying on the ice a few feet away, staring at them hatefully. Couldn't he even let her mourn her sister in peace? The knowledge of what he'd done, both to Anna and to herself, boiled over inside her.

She raised her hand high. Snowflakes swirled around her and spiraled together until they'd formed a long, viciously-sharp sword of pure ice in her hand. All she had to do was swing her arm down, and she'd pin that Duke to the ice with a blade through his ribs, just like he'd meant to do to her. Her face was a mask of hatred and fury. For a moment, she looked like the dreadful ice-witch that he'd always feared her to be.

But she glanced back at Anna, and her face softened. "No," she said sadly. "Anna wouldn't have wanted you dead." She threw the sword away; it shattered against the ice and dissolved to powder. "As her last gift, I give you your life. Now go!" When he didn't move fast enough, she screamed, "GO!" He turned and scurried away; she didn't watch him leave.

She turned back to Anna. There were tears frozen in her sister's eyes. She'd known what her action would cost, and she'd done it anyway. She'd given _everything_ for Elsa, the one who deserved it the least.

"Anna... no... please..." Elsa begged, then threw her arms around what was left of her sister and wept hopelessly. Kristoff, Sven and Olaf, who had found the scene when it was too late, could only stand in silence, staring at the ice at their feet.


	19. Chapter 19

**Frozen Together** Chapter 19

From a balcony of the palace, a small group of brave noblemen watched it all. They'd endured the fierce storm, mostly to try to observe its effects on the town and on their ice-locked ships in the fjord. When the storm suddenly ended, they were able to see the entire scene. They were joined a moment later by one more nobleman. Prince Hans' wound had just been stitched up and bandaged; he was walking with a cane; but he knew Anna was out there somewhere, and he _had_ to know what was happening.

They watched the Duke confronting Queen Elsa, although they were too distant to hear what was said, and they saw her collapse onto the ice. They saw Anna shuffling toward a man they didn't recognize, then turn aside and throw herself between her sister and the Duke. They gasped as the Princess suddenly turned into solid ice. They saw the Duke's knife shatter, and they knew what he'd tried to do. They saw the Queen threaten the Duke, and then let him go. They bowed their heads and watched silently as Elsa wept over her sister, accompanied only by the unknown man, a small living snowman, and a reindeer.

They were the first ones to see a tiny patch of color appear on Anna's chest.

It spread quickly. Parts of Anna's skin suddenly returned to their normal tone. Olaf was the first of Elsa's companions to see it. His cry of delight startled Sven, who nudged Kristoff. Finally, Anna gasped a deep breath and relaxed from her rigid pose, and it was only then that Elsa noticed.

"Anna...?" she exclaimed. Her knees went out from under her, and for a few moments, Anna had to hold her up. They both started crying and couldn't stop. Olaf and Kristoff felt a little bit uncomfortable, but neither of them had no intention of going anywhere.

"I think I had the strangest dream..." Anna began.

"Don't talk," Elsa begged her. It took a few minutes for them to cry it out. They let each other go at last, and held hands instead.

"Anna... you sacrificed yourself for me?" Elsa still couldn't believe what she'd seen.

"I love you," Anna replied, as though it was obvious.

It was Olaf who figured it out first. "An act of true love! Nobody said it had to be romantic love!"

"And it had to be her own act, because it was her heart that was frozen!" Kristoff exclaimed. "Otherwise, one of us would have saved her by now, because we all love her in one way or another! Even you, Sven!" Sven made a disgusted face at the thought of kissing a girl.

Elsa shook her head in confusion. "Wait... Anna... I just _killed_ you, and you come back loving me! What kind of love _is_ this?"

"It's not the kind that we read about in our fairy-tale books when we were little," Anna answered. "It's the real kind."

Elsa started to cry again. How could _anyone_ love _her_ that much? She wanted to reject that love – she certainly didn't deserve it – but then she remembered the Grand Pabbie's warning. "Guilt will be fear's greatest ally against you." She resolved not to wallow in guilt. She had another thought instead. _That kind of love has a power that's stronger than my cold powers. I wonder_... With her hands in Anna's, she closed her eyes and tried to visualize what that kind of love felt like.

For a moment, she could almost see her sister's love. It was like a warm cloud that flowed out of Anna's heart and enveloped them both. Her own cold power came up against it, and for a moment, they tried to overcome each other. But she made a conscious choice to let love in. With that, the two powers touched, swirled together, and became as one. A third force quickly joined them – her own love for Anna. It might not be as extravagantly powerful as Anna's love, but it could not be ignored.

Anna felt the sudden build-up of power in her sister, and thought it was Elsa's stress level rising. She quickly got behind her, with one hand on her shoulder and the other on her arm. "Let it go," she whispered.

Elsa just smiled over her shoulder. "Here it goes. We're unstoppable, you and I." She looked at all the snow and ice around them, the snow and ice that she'd unwittingly brought into being. _Now I know how to do this_. "Let it go!" she shouted triumphantly, and made a sudden upward gesture with both hands.

Snow began rising all around them, first as flakes, then in waves, then in great clouds. A wind appeared, carrying the snow upward into the sky, but it was a warm wind. Sharp cracking sounds resounded all around them as the thick ice on the fjord began to break up and melt. They realized they might be swimming soon, so they quickly gathered on a nearby rock that rose above the ice. That rock had been a hazard to navigation in the fjord since time immemorial, but they were grateful for it now.

The effect was quickly spreading all across the town, and up the fjord to the rest of the kingdom. For a few moments, it was hard to see more than a few feet, the flying snow was so thick. Then it had all risen above them, and everyone could see what was happening. People burst out of their houses and unbuttoned their heavy coats; flowers pressed down by the snow began to straighten themselves; the frozen fountains in the palace courtyard suddenly thawed into water again; ships that had been thrown on their sides by the ice splashed back into the fjord. The winter was ending almost as quickly as it had begun.

On the rock in the middle of the water, Elsa watched as her power, strengthened and focused by love, undid all the harm she'd done. Anna looked on in delight; the other three just stared in amazement.

Tons and tons of snow rose high into the air. As they watched, it all formed itself into a huge snowflake in the sky, at least a mile across. It was magnificent, it was beautiful... but it was unwanted. Elsa threw her hands apart sharply, and the monster flake suddenly shattered into thousands and thousands of fragments. Every one of those fragments flew up toward the sullen winter overcast, and punched a tiny hole in the cloud cover. Those holes swiftly grew, spread, and joined each other as the gray clouds thinned out. In a few seconds, there was no more cloud cover, just a clear blue Norwegian summer sky with a few puffy white clouds here and there.

From the shoreline, they could hear the sound of people cheering and celebrating.

Then they heard another sound, the sound of splashing nearby. It was the Duke, dog-paddling in the water and trying to find a place on the rock that he could hold onto. Kristoff's face clouded over; it looked like he meant to stomp on the nobleman's hands. Anna held up her hand to restrain him, pulled herself into a regal pose, and glared down at the waterlogged Duke.

"Please, Your Highness!" he begged her. "I'll drown!"

"It seems to me that _you're_ the one who hated the ice more than most people," Anna replied haughtily. "So... enjoy the water!" She put her boot on the Duke's forehead and pushed him back in. Elsa smiled approvingly, and they shared another quick hug.

Olaf watched with delight. He was growing shorter and squatter with each passing second, he was slumping to one side, and one of his arms dropped off. "You know, this is such a heartwarming moment, I don't know if I can stand it."

"Hold on, little guy! I don't want to melt _everything!_" Elsa exclaimed. She gestured, ice crystals flew, and Olaf rose back to his normal height. Another gesture, and a tiny snow cloud appeared just above him. He gasped in delight.

"My own private dark cloud, to follow me around! I'm going to be _such_ a ray of sunshine!"

From the palace balcony, the assembled royalty could see the five of them stranded on the rock in the middle of the water. They gave orders, and within minutes, a harbor launch had set out from the docks and rowed over to rescue them. Getting the reindeer into the boat was a challenge, but Kristoff was determined not to leave his friend behind.

As they climbed onto the docks, they were greeted by a small crowd of curious onlookers. Some of them had never seen their new Queen; others didn't recognize her in her ice costume and her new hairstyle. Anna stepped up and shouted, "Make way for Queen Elsa... the Bringer of Summer!"

"Oh, Anna, please!" Elsa exclaimed, embarrassed. "You'll make me feel ridiculous."

"We have to do it," Anna replied firmly. "The Duke has been poisoning the people's minds against you, and we have to undo that." She shouted again, "Make way for Queen Elsa, the Bringer of Summer!" The people, desperate for good news after all the calamities that had befallen their kingdom, latched onto the title and began shouting it to each other. "The Bringer of Summer! The Bringer of Summer is here!" As Elsa and Anna walked toward the palace, they were accompanied by a growing crowd of their excited subjects. Some of them picked flowers and strewed them in their sovereign's path.

Anna noticed a primrose on the ground just in front of them. She picked it up and tucked it behind Elsa's ear. "I always knew you'd look pretty with a kusymre in your hair," she smiled.

Elsa searched until she found another kusymre, which she stuck behind Anna's ear. "Oh, no, no, don't do that," Anna protested. "Kusymres just don't look good on me for some reason."

"Hmm," Elsa thought out loud. "It does need a little something..." She touched the flower and coated it with a delicate layer of frost crystals. Now it shimmered and gleamed in the sun, as though it were made of colored glass. Several of the girls who were throwing flowers ooh'ed and aah'ed with delight. "I think that did it," Elsa smiled.

"Elsa..." Anna whispered in amazement. "You did that right next to my head."

Elsa smiled. "I can do this now. I can control it." In a whisper for Anna's ears alone, she added, "I'm not afraid any more." She remembered the Grand Pabbie telling her, "Fear will be your enemy." She also remembered one of the few things she could recall from her childhood religious education –

"Perfect love casts out fear."

They approached the palace. Elsa motioned for the others to stop as she stepped forward. "Open the gates, in the name of the Queen!" she shouted.

As the guards pushed the heavy gates open, Elsa turned to Anna. "They'll never be closed again."

**o**

_A/N "Perfect love casts out fear" is from I John 4:18 in the Bible. Thank you to Teddi 8347 for initiating a discussion about "acts of true love" which influenced Kristoff's comments on this subject._


	20. Chapter 20

**Frozen Together** Chapter 20

The conclave of nobles was no longer stranded in Arendelle by ice; they could leave any time they wished. But before they left, Queen Elsa asked their help in judging a difficult case.

There was no question that the Duke of Weselton was guilty of making an attempt on the Queen's life. All the nobles on the palace balcony had watched him do it. When he tried to claim self-defense, they almost laughed at him. He denied ordering his men to attack her, and they refused to speak at all, so that aspect of the battle on the ice could not be proven legally. But the rules for noblemen were much more lenient than the rules for common people who broke laws. What kind of punishment could they all agree on? The conclave decided that the three of them should be deported to their homeland, never to return to Arendelle.

"We would assign a much stiffer punishment if there was no royal blood in your veins," the Duke of Glauerhafen thundered at the much smaller Duke. "It will be enough that you shall return to Weaseltown..."

"Weselton! It's Weselton!" the Duke protested.

"...where you will try to explain to your people why _all_ the kingdoms represented here are now observing a total embargo on trade with your realm," Glauerhafen finished.

"An embargo?" The Duke went pale. "No trade at all? You'll ruin us! You'll bankrupt us! I have debts I won't be able to repay! How could you be so uncivilized?"

"It's a much kinder fate than the one _you_ planned for _me,_" Elsa said, doing a masterful job of controlling her temper. "Now get this _person_ out of my kingdom!" The Duke was led away under guard; his men followed him in shackles.

At Anna's urging, Elsa did not bring charges against Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. She allowed her younger sister to judge him, with the promise that she would intervene only if justice completely miscarried. Hans and Anna met in the library to discuss his fate.

"I have to banish myself from Arendelle," he began. "My intentions toward you at the start were despicable, and the fact that I changed my mind doesn't affect that. I've learned a lot about myself lately, and I don't like what I saw. You're a very trusting girl, Anna. You need a man you can trust. I'm not that man."

"You could change," she urged him. "You already know you did the wrong thing. Is it that hard to do the right thing?"

"Anna, I'm the worst kind of man there is – a scoundrel with a conscience. I'm bad at being bad, but I'm not any good at being good, either."

"If you kept listening to that conscience, maybe you'd get better at being good."

He shook his head sadly. "Anna, you're _too_ trusting. Maybe I'd get better with the passing of time... or maybe I'd fall under the sway of another Duke of Weselton, offering me another shortcut to a life of power and privilege, no matter who else gets hurt." He waved at his injured leg. "I've learned a thing or two about people getting hurt, but that doesn't make me a fit consort for a real princess. Maybe, in a few years, I might be good enough for you, but I have a feeling you aren't going to wait that long. Not when there's a really good man close by."

"You mean Kristoff? But he's a commoner! I'm a princess! That's not allowed, is it?"

"Technically not," the Prince said thoughtfully, "but that's one advantage to having the Queen for a sister. She can make a nobleman out of anyone she wants."

"Kristoff... a nobleman?" She tried to imagine him in a fine suit at a formal reception. In her mind, he suddenly saw a speck of dirt on his fancy black shoe, so he took the shoe off, spat on it, buffed it clean with the sleeve of his dinner jacket, and put it back on, right in the middle of the reception. She had to giggle at the thought. "I think he's too rough around the edges to make a good nobleman."

"So he's a bit of a fixer-upper, but don't you write him off," Hans replied. "I've got a notion that a noble promotion might free some emotions for your Kristoff... wait, where did _that_ come from? Anyway, social rank is adjustable; manners can be learned; but if he's a good man on the inside, that's all that really matters. I can't say that about myself. I wish I could, because I really like you, and I'm going to miss you. A lot." He sighed and shook his head. "I guess you're going to have to find someone else to finish your salads." He leaned closer to her, and for a moment she thought he might try to kiss her. But that wasn't his plan. Not anymore.

"I really envy the relationship you have with your sister," he said quietly. "That's something rare and very precious. Don't _ever_ jeopardize that, Anna – not for a man, not for anything." He straightened sadly. "I need to get back to my ship before it leaves."

She threw her arms around him in an impulsive hug, which he returned. Then he let her go, turned away, and limped out of the room with his cane. He looked back several times, but he kept walking until he turned a corner and passed out of view. She almost asked him to stay. But the bottom line was that he was right – she needed a man she could trust, and Hans was not that man. Not today. Maybe not ever.

She sniffled and tried to maintain her composure. Maybe a little chocolate might have helped. But Gerda had put a lock on the chocolate cabinet, with orders from the Queen not to open it until tonight's ceremony was over. It was odd – she could _swear_ she smelled chocolate! On a whim (or maybe it was desperation), she removed the lid from the candy dish on the end table.

Inside were twelve pieces of the best royal chocolate, and a little note in her sister's handwriting. _"I have a feeling you're going to need this."_ Elsa was right. It helped... a little. Somehow Anna would make it through the rest of the day.

This was the day when the Queen of Arendelle would take up some unfinished business. The coronation ceremony was legally complete, but there was one traditional item on the agenda that hadn't happened yet. The new sovereign had to present herself to her people.

Elsa's appearance for that presentation had almost touched off another conflict. The noblewomen who had gathered for the coronation had taken her aside and encouraged her (some gently, some not so much) to look more like _their_ idea of how a queen should look. Specifically, they didn't think her dress and her hairstyle were appropriate for royalty. She wanted to be a pleasing sovereign, and she'd had enough of conflict already, but she'd also had a taste of how it felt to be herself, and she wasn't willing to yield to their ideas of who she ought to be.

The meeting was getting tense until Princess Anna stood up next to her sister. "I'd like to say something, if I could.

"Every one of us is an actress. We play a role in public that isn't the real 'us.' Some of you think you're better than regular people, but you act humble so you don't cause trouble. Others would love to live on the wild side a little, but you act serene and sedate because that's what everyone expects of us.

"Queen Elsa has had to maintain some kind of act _all her life,_ without a break. For years, she had to act like she didn't care about the people she loved the most. When that finally ended, she had to stand up in front of everyone and act like she had everything under control, when she was really right on the edge. If anything good came out of what's happened this week, it's that she has finally found out who she really is, and she doesn't have to cover up her true self any more.

"But now, _you_ want her to cover up her true self, and go back to living a lie? Ladies, I say this with all due respect: I don't think so."

A countess from a small inland kingdom stood up. "Are you suggesting that Elsa is the only one of us who's had a difficult life?"

Anna looked at her calmly. "How many crossbow bolts were aimed at _you _this week?" The countess sat down meekly. Anna went on.

"Queen Elsa is still going to have to play the role of the calm, collected noblewoman in public, just like the rest of us. The day may come when she's comfortable with that role. But you're asking more than that of her. You're asking her to deny who she is! You want to take the one spark of life and individuality that she's ever known, and snuff it out, so she can be comfortably miserable, just like you.

"Please don't do that to my sister." She sat down.

In the end, they compromised. Elsa kept her ice-blue outfit, but agreed to cover her neck and shoulders, and close up the slit. She kept her hairstyle unchanged – Anna refused to let her back down on that one – and no one objected to the ice-crystal cape. One baroness even asked her where she got it.

Anna waited until the noblewomen had filed out of the conference room to join their husbands, then leaned conspiratorially towards Elsa. "It really doesn't matter, you know," she grinned. "They'll all be gone in an hour or two, and you can dress any way you want."

"Anna... they're right, in a way. I'm a public figure now. People look up to me. Mothers will tell their daughters to grow up to be like me. I do have to meet some expectations that aren't my own. But thank you for standing up for me." She let her side-braid trail through her hand. "I'm glad I didn't have to give _this_ up."

A few hours later, as the sun was beginning to set, Elsa and Anna stood inside the palace, just behind the balcony door. They could hear the bustle of the crowd in the courtyard below them. It sounded like half the kingdom had gathered for the presentation of the new queen.

Anna laid a hand on Elsa's shoulder. "Are you nervous?" she asked quietly.

"Not really," Elsa answered. "I know there aren't any Dukes in the crowd, just nice, ordinary people like your Kristoff." Anna blushed, which made Elsa smile.

At the stroke of six o'clock, Kai stepped out onto the balcony. "Ladies and gentlemen, good citizens of Arendelle! Welcome back to the palace. The time has come. Allow me to present to you... your newly crowned sovereign... Her Majesty the Queen... _Queen Elsa!_" He stood aside, Elsa stepped out, and the crowd cheered and clapped enthusiastically. A few shouts of "The Bringer of Summer!" could be heard here and there, mingled with cries of "Long live the Queen!"

Elsa had meant to look solemn and regal through the entire presentation. But the sight of all those people, wishing her well, touched her heart in a way she hadn't expected. Tears welled up in her eyes. She almost turned away, but Anna stepped up behind her, a hand on her arm.

"_They_ love you, too," she whispered. Somehow, that was just the right thing to say. Suddenly, Elsa actually felt like celebrating.

Twin jets of sparkling ice shot upwards from the balcony and burst overhead in a crystalline spray. Some of the people in the crowd realized that their Queen had done it; most of them thought it was some kind of royal fireworks. They all cheered. Anna, of course, knew exactly who had done it, and she felt like celebrating, too. Her sister was finally free to be herself! She couldn't contain the joy that flooded her heart.

"Let it show! Let it show! You don't have to hide anymore!  
"Let it show! Let it show! Your life is an open door!  
"There you stand – no more masquerade!  
"You're the queen! Reign on!"

Elsa smiled and murmured, just loudly enough for Anna to hear her –

"I'm loved; there's no reason to be afraid."

_The End_

**o**

_A/N  
The story behind the story:_

_My only complaint with "Frozen" is that Elsa spends most of the movie so miserably unhappy. There's nothing wrong with that, from a storyteller's point of view. But I adore Elsa and I hate to see her that miserable. If I wave my fanfic-writer's magic wand and make everything better for her, that would result in a boring story. So I took the middle road; Elsa still had a lot of things go horribly wrong, but she didn't have to go through them alone._

_I find it slightly amusing that, among the many reviews this story has gotten, one of the most repeated comments is that people like how I made Hans less evil than he was in the movie. I present him as the flip side of Elsa – both of them are confused and trying to find themselves, but Elsa is guided by a positive influence (Anna), while Prince Hans is led by a negative one (the Duke). A couple of reviewers didn't like how I changed Hans, but then, one of them also didn't like me using my rewrites of the songs. You can't please everybody, I guess._

_As I often do, I threw in an assortment of references to other stories, including Shrek, Star Trek, Bugs Bunny (in two places), The Little Mermaid, and Wicked (also in two places)._


End file.
